Hibino saves match point, ousts Andreescu in Roland Garros qualifying

Japan's Nao Hibino ended No. 17 seed Bianca Andreescu's return to Roland Garros qualifying after pulling off a remarkable second-round comeback to win 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in 2 hours and 31 minutes. Hibino saved one match point trailing 5-3 in the second set.

Andreescu had opened her qualifying campaign with the first 6-0, 6-0 win of her career over Yao Xinxin. She picked up where she left off in a dominant first set against Hibino, carving a series of winning drop shots and deploying fine variety from the baseline. No. 200-ranked Hibino found some form to take a 3-1 lead in the second set, but Andreescu responded by powering through the next four games in a row to reach the brink of victory.

However, Hibino fired an inside-in forehand winner from deep beyond the baseline to save match point, and from that point on began to deliver some brilliant all-court tennis to turn the match in her favor. The former No. 56 and three-time WTA titlist began to read Andreescu's game and come up with answers for everything: flat counter-punching from the baseline to wrong-foot the Canadian, canny net approaches to cut off volleys and her own deft counter-drop shots.

Hibino played a magnificent return game to break Andreescu for 5-5, then from 5-2 down in the tiebreak reeled off five straight points to level the match. A pair of Andreescu forehand errors opened the door, but at 5-5 in the tiebreak, Hibino stepped up with a pair of superb backhand winners to snatch the set.

A barnburner of a third set saw Hibino capture the only break for 3-2 as Andreescu sent a backhand wide. Both players ended the match with positive ratios of winners to unforced errors -- Hibino tallying 30 to 24, and Andreescu 43 to 33. Hibino will next bid for a place in her seventh Roland Garros main draw against No. 12 seed Ella Seidel, who defeated Panna Udvardy 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.

A trio of wild three-setters

Midway through Day 3, heavy rain halted action. But three wild three-setters managed to get over the line before play was called on all courts.

• French wild card Margaux Rouvroy had treated her home fans to the longest match of the first qualifying round, a 3-hour, 40-minute battle over Haruka Kaji. She delivered another epic in the second round, but came out on the losing end, falling to Nina Stojanovic in 3 hours and 3 minutes. Stojanovic was two points from defeat in the second set as Rouvroy served at 5-4, then also trailed 3-1 in the decider before reeling off four straight games to lead 5-3. Buoyed by the Parisian crowd, Rouvroy saved the first four match points against her to level at 5-5, but Stojanovic held firm to convert her sixth.
• Lola Radivojevic's 6-1, 3-6, 7-6[9] triumph over fellow 20-year-old Sofia Costoulas didn't initially look like going long after the Serb raced through 16 of the first 21 points. But the gritty Costoulas fought back with superb counterpunching over the next two sets, and Radivojevic had to save two match points serving down 5-4 in the third set. Having come through that six-deuce tussle, Radivojevic leapt out to a 9-4 lead in the super-tiebreak -- only for Costoulas to stave off quintuple match point and level at 9-9. But Radivojevic's power game came through in the end as she landed a winner on the line, her 47th of the match, to convert her sixth match point after 2 hours and 48 minutes.
• Sara Bejlek's record in Grand Slam qualifying has been feast or famine so far: the 19-year-old Czech has made it through to the main draw five times in 10 appearances, but exited at the first hurdle in the five remaining tournaments. Bejlek's chances of qualifying for a sixth major (and second Roland Garros) remain alive after she escaped No. 31 seed Ena Shibahara 7-5, 2-6, 7-6[10] after 3 hours and 5 minutes. Bejlek saved one set point in the first set, then three match points as she came from 5-3 down in the decider. Shibahara held her first match point serving at 6-5, then the next two in the super-tiebreak.