October 17, 2021 - The world #1 judoka Barbara Matić continues with stellar results this year, taking home the silver medal from the judo Grand Slam in Paris over the weekend. 

Croatian judoka Barbara Matić won second place at one of the strongest judo tournaments in the world, the Grand Slam in Paris, reports T.portal. 

The world champion won the silver medal in the category up to 70 kg, while Zlatko Kumrić lost in the category up to 100 kilograms in the semifinals, and then in the fight for bronze and finished fifth.

What Wimbledon is for tennis, the Paris grand slam is for judo. The jubilee 50th anniversary of the Grand Slam in the capital of France seems to have additionally inspired the Croatian duo.

"Competing in Paris is something special. Apart from the fact that there were more than 10,000 people in the beautiful hall, they are all judo experts, and it is a pleasure to fight there," they both agreed after the current world champion Matić finished with a silver medal. Kumrić took fifth place in Paris for the fourth time in his career.

In her first appearance after the Tokyo Olympics, the first with a new red inscription on her back as the current world champion, she dominated until the final by defeating Mongolian Tserendulam and British Petersen Pollard. But in the final, Japan’s Niizoe was better.

"I didn't feel most ready before Paris, but I'm happy with the first competition, and a silver medal at the Grand Slam is always a good result. Of course, I always want to win all the fights, but today Niizoe took advantage of the situation and she threw me. I failed, and she won gold," said Matić, who very likely secured number 1 on the world ranking scale of the category up to 70 kg at the end of 2021, thanks to these points in Paris. 

Kumrić lost to Russian Ademian in the final block, first in the semifinals and on the same stage of the European Games in Minsk in 2019, and then he lost to Georgian Saneblidze in the fight for bronze.

"It was a good day, I reached the semifinals, but it's time to win that medal; I'm starting to hate fifth place," Kumric said after the defeat in the bronze medal fight.

Karla Prodan (up to 78 kg) and Marko Kumrić (up to 100 kg) also competed on Sunday.

The Split judoka lost in the last minute against Japanese judoka Takayama, who won silver in Paris. Her younger brother Kumrić dominated against the Frenchman Delvert, forced him to two penalties, but then fell in the end. 

The next IJF World Tour tournament is the Grand Slam Baku in Azerbaijan (November 5-7).

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May 29, 2019 - Petra Martić, Donna Vekić, and Marin Čilić played in the second round of Roland Garros in Paris on Wednesday, announces HTS. 

Petra Martić continues with great performances at this year's Roland Garros. After quickly overcoming Tunisian player Jabeur (in just 66 minutes), Martić defeated French national Kristina Mladenovic (WTA-53) in two games - 6:2, 6:1.

Two breaks in the first and three in the second set were enough for Petra to convincingly win over Mladneovic, who took Martić’s service for the first time in the first game of the second set, and then lost six consecutive games. Martić, who hit three aces with 70 percent of the first service, made only nine unforced errors during the match and lost only 13 points to her service. Petra’s next rival will be the second-best tennis player in the world, Czech national Karolina Plíšková. So far they've played on four occasions, and Petra has three wins. 

Donna Vekić also moves forward in Roland Garros. The Osijek native advanced to the round of 32 of the Paris tournament on Wednesday for the second time in her career after defeating Swedish player Rebecca Peterson (WTA-63) - 1:6, 6: 1, 6:2.

The first set convincingly went to Peterson, but we saw the dominance of Vekić who won 10 of the next 11 games, and was up to a 4:0 lead in the decisive set. Peterson managed to reduce Vekić’s advantage to 4:2, but that was all she was able to do in this duel. With this win, Donna moves to the 21st position on the WTA list, which is her new career ranking. Her chance to enter the company of the 20 best tennis players in the world will be in the 3rd round against the winner of the Bencic - Siegemund match.

Marin Čilić goes home early from this year's appearance at Roland Garros. Croatia’s best male tennis player lost in the second round after a giant five-set game (and almost four and a half hours of play). Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov (ATP-46) won 6:7 (3), 6:4, 4:6, 7:6 (2), 6:3.

Marin played a good match and fought to the last point, but Dimitrov eventually found the path to success. Dimitrov was behind 2:1, but managed to get back and take the next two sets. In the final set, Marin lost his service twice and allowed his opponent to lead 5:2. Dimitrov then served to win, Čilić managed to break, but then lost his first strike and then the match. Čilić had 13 aces, with 53 percent of his first service and 58 unforced errors (Dimitrov had 45). It was their sixth meeting and the second win of the Bulgarian tennis player.

Borna Ćorić will face Lloyd Harris, while Ivo Karlović will face Jordan Thompson on Thursday in the second round.

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