Danielle Collins vs Sofia Kenin French Open 2020 QF Preview and Prediction
Danielle Collins is in the midst of another dream slam run, hoping to add a French Open semi-final to her 2019 one in Australia.…
Danielle Collins is in the midst of another dream slam run, hoping to add a French Open semi-final to her 2019 one in Australia.…
Petra Kvitova continues to move closer to an unlikely French Open title with just three matches between her and the trophy.…
Andrey Rublev will look to make his first Grand Slam semi-final on Wednesday, taking on Stefanos Tsitsipas for a spot in…
On the Sunday Roland Garros started, reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas and red-hot Russian Andrey Rublev were in Germany battling in the final of the Hamburg European Open.
Now, the 22-year-old stars are set to battle in the quarter-finals of the clay-court Grand Slam.
“He’s a very challenging player to play against,” Tsitsipas said. “I think he for sure brings the best out of me when I step out on the court to play against him.”
In their Hamburg final, Tsitsipas served for the championship, but Rublev rallied for the trophy and a 2-1 lead in their ATP Head2Head series. They played on multiple occasions in the juniors six years ago, clashed in a five-set thriller at the 2018 Next Gen ATP Finals and now they will meet once more for a spot in a major semi-final.
“It is very important for me to take this opportunity and fight harder this time, maybe do something better. He’s a tough cookie,” Tsitsipas said. “He’s going to be difficult to play against. He has a very complete, solid game from all the departments. He has improved a lot his serve. He relies a lot on his power. He has very powerful shots. We share a similar game style.”
Watch Rublev-Tsitsipas Hamburg Highlights:
Tsitsipas has slightly more variety in his game. The Greek has a stronger serve — he began the tournament third on the ATP Tour in service games won compared to Rublev’s 12th — and is more comfortable using angles to open up the court and move forward. But Rublev, pound-for-pound, might have the most power in the sport.
Both players have also overcome adversity in Paris. They each rallied from two sets down for the first time in their opening match, with Tsitsipas overcoming Jaume Munar and Rublev ousting Sam Querrey.
“Both of us had a tough, tough week in Hamburg, tough final. Then both of us were down in the first round with two sets to love. Both of us come back,” said Rublev, the 2014 Roland Garros boys’ singles champion who had never won a main draw match at the event before this year. “Now we are here and we’re going to play each other in quarters… I hope it’s going to be interesting. I hope we’re going to show a good level, good match, and I hope people will enjoy [it].”
Wednesday’s other quarter-final will see World No. 1 Novak Djokovic continue his pursuit of a second Roland Garros title. The Serbian has not dropped a set through four matches in Paris for the third time, and he will try to continue his impressive form against 17th seed Pablo Carreno Busta.
“Carreno Busta is someone that is obviously very solid. I think he actually improved his game in the last 12, 15 months on all the surfaces. I mean, playing semi-finals in the US Open proves it,” Djokovic said. “Has very good hands, great return. Puts you under a lot of pressure.
“He moves very well. Obviously, as all the Spanish players, he grew up playing on clay, even though probably his game fits the hard court, kind of slower hard courts, the most.”
The Spaniard, a two-time US Open semi-finalist, is bidding for his first trip to the last four at this event. In 2017, he reached his first Grand Slam quarter-final at Roland Garros.
“Maybe these kind of conditions also fit him nicely because the ball doesn’t bounce too high, he plays quite flat from both corners. He actually likes [the] slower surface,” Djokovic said. “Similar to Bautista [Agut], he waits for the opponent’s mistake, but he can also come in, step in, play his backhand down the line. He’s a very complete player.”
Photo Credit: Peter Staples/ATP Tour
Djokovic carried plenty of momentum, fresh off his victory at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. The Serbian is 35-1 in 2020 and he can win his 18th major trophy this fortnight.
“Another match against the No. 1 of the world. He won two weeks ago in Rome. He’s winning his matches here in Paris not easily, but comfortably. It will be a really tough match,” Carreno Busta said, “For sure he will be at 100 per cent again. I will try to do my best to try to beat him.”
Djokovic leads their ATP Head2Head series 3-1, with two of those meetings coming on clay, both at the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters. In 2014, Djokovic only lost one game against the Spaniard. But in 2017, their clash went to three sets. If the top seed triumphs Wednesday, he will reach his 10th Roland Garros semi-final.
Dominic Thiem says he was “over the limit” physically during a five-hour defeat by Diego Schwartzman in the French Open quarter-finals.
Dominic Thiem admitted after his five-set fourth-round victory at Roland Garros against Hugo Gaston that he was, “not running on a full tank anymore”. For more than five hours over five sets on Wednesday he battled hard against Diego Schwartzman, but the recent US Open champion simply didn’t have anything left to give.
“To be honest, I was over the limit today,” Thiem said. “Maybe I would have recovered [for the semi-finals]. Even though I’m physically and mentally on the edge, you never know in a Slam, especially [with] tomorrow and Thursday off, two full days to recover. You never know what would happen. But at the end I gave everything I had out there.
“It was an amazing match. I think the first in my career over five hours. Diego fully deserves it.”
The World No. 3 arrived in Paris without having played since winning his maiden Grand Slam title in New York. But after a few matches on the terre battue he knew he did not have a full tank.
“I just tried to do everything I could on the days off to recover. [I] also tried something new, which I haven’t done before,” Thiem said. “Before the Round of 16, I did nothing the whole day. [I] just tried to be on 100 per cent again.”
It didn’t help that Thiem had to play five sets against Gaston after winning the first two sets. Their clash only lasted three hours and 32 minutes, but Thiem had to do a lot of sprinting to retrieve drop shots off the lefty’s racquet. Still, he played well enough to push recent Internazionali BNL d’Italia finalist Schwartzman to the brink.
“I was doing it quite well, I have the feeling. Also today I still could play at quite a high level for more than five hours,” Thiem said. “But he was keeping it up until the end. He was probably a little bit fresher than me in the fifth set, so that’s why he won.”
At the net Thiem told Schwartzman, his close friend, that he deserved the triumph. Thiem fell short of reaching a fifth consecutive Roland Garros semi-final, but while he is disappointed, the Austrian knows he gave it his best shot.
“I’m not sad with my performance here [at] Roland Garros. It was a pretty short time with the long trip home, jet lag and everything. Then, of course [this came after I won my] first Slam, which is a special thing,” Thiem said. “[I] came here, played in pretty brutal conditions, I would say. I cannot say it was a bad tournament, I’m pretty happy about it.”
An investigation begins into alleged match-fixing in a French Open women’s doubles first-round match, the Paris prosecutor’s office confirms.
Diego Schwartzman recorded one of the biggest wins of his career on Tuesday in an energy-sapping five-hour, eight-minute victory for a place in the Roland Garros semi-finals.
Schwartzman dug deep to win one of the matches of the year, 7-6(1), 5-7, 6-7(6), 7-6(5), 6-2, over third seed Dominic Thiem, the 2018 and 2019 finalist, on Court Philippe-Chatrier in south-west Paris.
Schwartzman, appearing in his fourth major championship quarter-final, recovered from 2-4 down in the first set and 1-3 down in the second set, and had the match on his racquet, but crucially missed a forehand on top of the net with his Austrian opponent serving at 4-5, 15/30. Thiem dug deep to save one set point at 4-5 in the third set and three set points at 4-5 in the fourth set, which Schwartzman found a way to win to force a decider.
Schwartzman physically worked his way to his 20th victory of the year (20-9 record), wearing down Thiem, who had chased down drop shots against French wild card Hugo Gaston in a five-hour fourth-round marathon.
The 28-year-old Schwartzman, runner-up at the recent Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome (d. Djokovic), will now play Spanish second seed and 12-time champion Rafael Nadal or Jannik Sinner of Italy.
Thiem saved the first break point of the match, in the opening game, and went on to open up a 4-2 advantage, before Schwartzman broke back and was supreme in the tie-break, winning the first five points.
Thiem immediately regrouped to take a 3-1 lead in the second set, but hit his fifth double fault to hand Schwartzman the sixth game. At 4-4, Schwartzman dealt Thiem a psychological blow, saving seven break points in a 15-minute hold.
But a forehand miss from Schwartzman on top of the net, with Thiem serving at 4-5, 15/30, proved to be pivotal. It shook up the Austrian, who broke for a 6-5 advantage for a way back into the pair’s ninth ATP Head2Head meeting. The titanic 68-minute second set ended with Schwartzman, often seen scurrying behind the baseline, striking a backhand into the net.
Thiem appeared set to break clear when he clinched the first game of the third set, which incredibly featured eight breaks of serve. Schwartzman opened up 3-1 and 5-3 leads, but forehand errors, on both occasions, cost the Argentine. Thiem, struggling on serve throughout, gifted Schwartzman a set point at 4-5, 30/40, but the Argentine over-hit a backhand and came under pressure in the next game, when he was broken after striking a backhand long.
Thiem, serving for the set, was then broken to 15, but won five straight points from 0/1 in the tie-break. Schwartzman saved two set points from 4/6, but Thiem made it third-time lucky at 7/6 with a smash winner.
Thiem again looked primed for his 21st victory in 26 matches this season, when he took a 2-0 lead in the fourth set. But Schwartzman kept fighting and won four straight games. Just as Thiem’s energy levels looked to dipping with Schwartzman at 5-4, 40/0, the Austrian saved three set points — the final one with an outstanding running forehand winner down the line.
Thiem then levelled the score at 5-5 when Schwartzman hit a forehand into the net. Again, the Argentine almost conjured up a way back, but it was the sheer power of Thiem that saved a break point at 30/40 in the next game. Thiem broke clear early in the tie-break, but Schwartzman held firm to take the clash to a decider once Thiem hit a backhand wide.
Germans Kevin Krawietz and Andreas Mies continued their Roland Garros title defence on Tuesday by earning a place in the semi-finals.
The eighth seeds secured one break early in each set to beat British No. 13 seeds Jamie Murray and Neal Skupski 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 39 minutes on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.
Krawietz and Mies, who converted two of their nine break point opportunities, now face ninth-seeded US Open finalists Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic or Americans Nicholas Monroe and Tommy Paul.
Not even one day had passed since Dominic Thiem’s victory in the US Open final, and his mind and aspirations were already focused on Roland Garros. His coach, Nicolas Massu, can attest to that; “You always have to try and achieve more.”
And that intention has borne fruit in Paris. The Austrian has made it to his fifth successive quarter-final at the clay-court major, and on Tuesday the World No. 3 will be bidding for more when he takes on his good friend Diego Schwartzman. In the midst of their preparations for the tie, the Chilean opened up to ATPTour.com.
Another tournament, another bubble… has the isolation during competition now become normality?
At the end of the day, it’s a question of adapting. Here in Paris, just like in New York, we try to spend the time as well as possible. In my case, I don’t think in terms of how many days are left or how many I’ve been there for. I simply concentrate on my work. The excitement of being at a Grand Slam and wanting to do big things is enough. You come here to work, to win, to make history.
Are you happy with Thiem’s game after such a short period of preparation for Roland Garros?
We knew that his tennis was ready. We just had to get him physically and mentally recovered in order to continue competing energetically. Dominic came here without playing any tournaments on clay. Normally, you come to this tournament having played on the surface since Monte Carlo, with eight weeks of preparation. This time Dominic trained for just six or seven days, three or four of them in Vienna and the rest here. So it was important to start well in the early rounds, despite having a very tough draw. But I think he’s done a very good job.
And, apart from the change in surface, you had to adapt to the conditions at this very atypical French Open…
This is a different year, with different weather and balls. After the US Open, we started training in Vienna with these balls, but it was hot, and when he got here everything was different. But in the end, Dominic adapts very quickly. Nowadays, he can play in any condition and with any ball. What we did after the US Open was to listen to his body, understand what happened there. If we managed that well, we knew that he could play well.
You have both said that the title in New York was a weight off his shoulders and he would play better without so much pressure. Have you seen that in Paris?
Yes. It gave him significant confidence. It’s always good to win your first Grand Slam, to make history. He’d had that dream since he was little, and he did it. It’s something that gives you great reinforcement. But you always want more, it’s very difficult to be satisfied or to think about what you’ve already done. It happened to me as a player too. The US Open title gives Dominic peace of mind, great joy. But the tennis has to continue. And that’s why he’s here fighting, battling because he wants to keep doing big things.
You say it happened to you as a player. Is it happening to you now as a coach?
The thing is that there’s not much time to be able to sit down and analyse the triumphs because you have to prepare for another tournament. In this case Roland Garros, which is so important to Dominic. After New York, I had a few free days in Milan, but then I was in Vienna training with Dominic, who had started to prepare for the tournament two days before with his father.
Was there no time to celebrate?
You enjoy it as much as you can, and obviously, as a coach, winning a Grand Slam is incredible, an amazing feeling. But I think that while you’re doing this, you always want more, as a player and as a coach. And if you’ve won a Grand Slam, you want to continue, you want to keep working. If Dominic has already done it, it’s because he can do it again.
Who are the other favourites?
I’m always confident he will win, regardless of who’s on the other side of the net. That should be the belief, although that doesn’t mean you’re going to win. You have to demonstrate that conviction. As for the other favourites… I would have to name the same players that have reached these rounds in the past. We already know who they are [Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic]. Obviously Dom has a chance at every tournament he plays in because he’s number three in the world, but the ranking doesn’t make you win matches. If you don’t fight, you lose.
