Daria Kasatkina, fresh from ensuring Australia still has two survivors in this most testing of sun-baked French Opens, is celebrating the chance to take on her old rival, world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka, in a marquee third-round match-up.
The imported Aussie 'Dasha' continued her welcome revival but had to really sweat it out on another scorching day at Roland Garros before subduing her most dogged of opponents, Swiss qualifier Susan Bandecchi, 7-5 7-6 (13-11) on Thursday.
That hard-fought win in the 32C afternoon heat was a welcome tonic for the Australian challenge after Queensland giant-killers Kimberly Birrell and Adam Walton both crashed back down to earth with deflating losses.
In an epic second-set tiebreak lasting 17 minutes, Kasatkina eked out seven match points before finally killing off the stubborn challenge of clean-hitting world No.215 Bandecchi and will now vie with Alex de Minaur, who'll face Jakub Mensik on Friday, to again be 'last Aussie standing' at RG, just as she was last year.
