After each round, Baseline will look back at the round that was at Roland Garros.

1

There is winning on the tennis court and winning in life. Juan Martin del Potro did both on Thursday while knotted at a set apiece against three-time French Open quarterfinalist Nicolas Almagro. The Spaniard was visibly in pain, and collapsed to the court with emotion.

Not that the tennis world would expect anything different from the Olympic silver medalist, but Del Potro rushed to comfort Almagro.

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The favored No. 29 seed advanced, but that was clearly not what mattered most.

2

Ons Jabeur lost at the French Open—in qualifying. Thanks to a lucky loser spot in the main draw, the Tunisian has advanced to the third round, becoming the first Arab woman to reach that stage of a Grand Slam.

Jabeur had only made the main draw at the majors twice before (at the 2015 Australian Open and the 2014 US Open).

“When I win, I represent the Arab world. When I lose, I try to be just Ons Jabeur,” she said after stunning Dominika Cibulkova. “We are small country. The Arab world is like when you do something good, you’re from Tunisia, and from Morocco, other Arab country, they get interested in you.”

3

Steve Johnson would have had his work cut out for him against Borna Coric on Wednesday under normal circumstances. It took him nearly four hours to beat the young Croatian on the terre battue.

But the circumstances under which Johnson played this match were not normal. The American is still grieving the death of his father Steve Johnson Sr., who passed away earlier this month. The former USC Trojan lost his composure after hitting a winner on match point.

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“I just miss my dad,” Johnson said after his win. “So emotional. It’s hard to describe. I just know he was looking down on me on that last point and gave me the strength to finish it off.”

Johnson's 2017 Roland Garros campaign would end Friday at the hands of Dominic Thiem.

4

Raise your hand if you would have thought that either Veronica Cepede Royg or Mariana Duque-Marino would reach the third round.

Neither player has ever gone this far at a Grand Slam before. Cepede Royg and Duque-Marino, who have reached career-high rankings of No. 95 and No. 66, respectively, seemed unlikely to get through difficult openers, let alone the second round.

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Cepede Royg beat 2015 Roland Garros runner-up Lucie Safarova before stunning 16th-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Her Colombian opponent, Duque-Marino, defeated No. 44-ranked Irina-Camelia Begu before taking out Magdalena Rybarikova, who had upset CoCo Vandeweghe.

One of these South Americans will reach the round of 16.

5

Two rounds are through at the French Open and there has yet to be another astonishing upset.

Eight of the Top 10 seeds on the men’s side are still alive — only No. 9 Alexander Zverev lost in the first round to tough veteran Fernando Verdasco. Tenth-seeded David Goffin retired with an ankle sprain on Friday in the third round.

The Top 10 women's seeds have not looked quite as sharp, with No. 6 Cibulkova and No. 7 Johanna Konta joining top-seeded Angelique Kerber in the early round losers category.

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