Katie Boulter became the final British hope to fall at the French Open as she slumped to a three-set defeat to 28th seed Anastasia Potapova.
Unlucky Court 13, the graveyard of the Brits, seized its fourth victim on Thursday night following Emma Raducanu, Fran Jones and Cameron Norrie’s exits on this same patch of clay.
At least Boulter was able to avoid the opening bagel suffered by both Raducanu and Jones and seized a hard-fought first set 7-5 against the animated Potapova, who berated herself after every missed point.
Boulter saved three set points in the second set after Potapova raced into a 5-2 lead and, despite getting one break of serve back, lost the set 6-4.
Potapova sensed victory and reeled off the final set 6-2 to secure a victory that means all six Brits have failed to reach the third round at Roland Garros.
Meanwhile, French teenage sensation Moise Kouame became the youngest man since Rafael Nadal to reach the third round of a Grand Slam in a near-five hour epic against Paraguay’s Adolfo Daniel Vallejo.
Katie Boulter became the final Brit to fall in the French Open as she was beaten in the second round on Thursday
The 17-year-old, ranked 313 in the world, wowed his home crowd on Court Suzanne Lenglen by sealing a final set tie-break to win 6-3 7-5 3-6 2-6 7-6 (10/8).
‘Last year, I watched Carlos Alcaraz against Jannik Sinner, I saw how Alcaraz saved match points to win,’ said Kouame. ‘At 5-3 down in the fifth set, I never stopped believing. No one must stop believing, ever.’
Frances Tiafoe lost his racquet when celebrating his second-round victory with a group of fans but later announced it had been returned after the American 19th seed posted a plea on Instagram offering two tickets to his next match as a reward.
