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With twilight closing in on Roland Garros on Sunday, Novak Djokovic wasted no time securing his place in the quarter-finals.
The second seed continued his quest to retain the Coupe de Mousquetaires with a comprehensive 7-6(5), 6-1, 6-3 victory over 19th seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas. The Serbian fired 34 winners and converted an impressive seven of 10 (70 per cent) break chances during the two-hour and 27-minute affair.
Djokovic will face sixth seed Dominic Thiem in a blockbuster battle in Tuesday’s quarter-finals. It will be his eight consecutive appearance in the last eight on the terre battue of Roland Garros. In addition, he joins Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer atop the list of most quarter-finals reached in Paris, with 11.
“The atmosphere tonight is very special because it was the last match of the day,” said Djokovic. “The crowd was really into it. They wanted to see good tennis, but also have fun and entertain themselves, so hopefully they did.
“It was really amazing couple of times both players received a standing ovation for the efforts, which was nice to see that the crowd appreciates and recognize the effort. And for us as tennis players, obviously playing in front of such crowd is always a great joy.”
Djokovic was tested early on, but swiftly flipped the switch on Sunday evening in Paris. A forehand winner saw Ramos-Vinolas snatch a break in the first game of the match. The lead would vacillated between the two competitors as the opener wore on, but Djokovic would have the last laugh in the ensuing tie-break, taking a one-set lead after 75 minutes.
As long and grueling as the opener was, Djokovic refused to be pressed in the second and third sets. The second seed dropped just four games the rest of the way, breaking five more times en route to the victory.
The longest point of the tournament came with Ramos-Vinolas serving down 2-1 in the third set. Facing break point, he would claim the 41-shot rally as both players keeled over in exhaustion. The Spaniard won that battle, but Djokovic would take the encounter, capturing his first match point on a forehand winner.
“I just didn’t start out of the blocks the way I wanted,” added Djokovic. “He started very solid, not making errors and just spinning the ball well, getting a lot of balls back. There were a lot of breaks and rebreaks in the first set. But it was very close. It could have gone either way and I’m just glad that I managed to win that tie-break, because after that, obviously I started playing with more freedom and more confidence.
“The second and third went really well. I thought especially in the second I did things very well from the back of the court. I mixed it up and didn’t give him any comfort zone on the court. I always made him guess, which was one of the keys.”
Djokovic has not dropped a set (10-0) in four FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings with Ramos-Vinolas. He will seek his 60th match win at Roland Garros when he faces Thiem in the quarter-finals. It is a rematch of the Serbian’s ruthless 6-1, 6-0 victory in the semis of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia just two weeks ago.
Ramos-Vinolas, meanwhile, completed a strong run on the European clay, which saw him rise to a career-high World No. 17 in the Emirates ATP Rankings. The Spaniard notched his first win over a World No. 1 in stunning Andy Murray at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters, en route to his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final (l. to Nadal).
Go inside the tournament at RolandGarros.com.
Austrian defeats Zeballos on Sunday
Sixth seed Dominic Thiem wasted no time getting down to business on Sunday at Roland Garros, requiring just one hour and 39 minutes to book his spot in the quarter-finals over Horacio Zeballos 6-1, 6-3, 6-1.
Thiem picked up his 33rd match win of the season, second only to Rafael Nadal (39). The victory also marks the first time he has reached a Grand Slam quarter-final without dropping a set.
The Austrian continues to excel on clay this season, winning in Rio de Janeiro (d. Carreno Busta) and finishing runner-up at the Mutua Madrid Open and Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell (both l. to Nadal). Thiem is the only player to defeat Nadal on clay this year, ousting the Spaniard in the Internazionali BNL d’Italia quarter-finals.
Next up for Thiem is second seed Novak Djokovic or 19th seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas. Thiem is even in his FedEx ATP Head2Head with Ramos-Vinolas at 1-1 and won their most recent match this February in Rio de Janeiro.
However, He trails Djokovic in their FedEx ATP Head2Head 0-5 and has won just eight games in the five sets they’ve contested on clay. The Serbian defeated Thiem in last year’s Roland Garros semi-finals and handed him one of the most lopsided losses of his career last month, cruising to a 6-1, 6-0 win in the Rome semi-finals.
More: Nishikori Survives In Five
The sixth seed only lost three points on his first serve (35/38) against Zeballos and broke the Argentine seven times. Thiem finished the day with 24 winners to 17 unforced errors, firing an ace on his first match point to wrap up the contest.
Go inside the tournament at RolandGarros.com
| French Open |
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| Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Dates: 28 May – 11 June |
| Coverage: Listen to live radio commentary and follow text coverage of selected matches on BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and online. |
Defending champion Garbine Muguruza was unhappy with a “really tough” crowd after defeat by home favourite Kristina Mladenovic at the French Open.
The Spaniard, 23, lost 6-1 3-6 6-3 on a packed Suzanne Lenglen Court which gave its full backing to Mladenovic.
Seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams’ defeat by Swiss Timea Bacsinszky means a new major champion will be crowned in Paris on Saturday.
“It’s a very painful defeat here in the French Open,” said a tearful Muguruza.
“The crowd was really tough today. I can’t really understand. I don’t know how to explain.
“If you had been in my shoes on the court, I think you would have understood.
“I don’t know what people were expecting. I’d rather not say anything more.”
Mladenovic, 24, served 16 double faults but came through amid a raucous atmosphere on the second show court at Roland Garros.
No Frenchwoman has won the title at Roland Garros since Mary Pierce in 2000.
Thirteenth seed Mladenovic joins Bacsinszky, Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki and Latvian Jelena Ostapenko in the last eight, with only three of the top 10 seeds still in the draw.
Muguruza, 23, left her media conference briefly because she was so upset, before returning to reveal she was glad to relieve the pressure of being French Open champion.
“I love this tournament no matter what happens,” said Muguruza, who claimed not to have been distracted by Mladenovic’s cries of “Forza!” after the Spaniard’s errors.
“I’m going to be super happy to come back.
“Everybody is going to stop bothering me asking me about this tournament, so it’s going to be a little bit like, ‘Whew, let’s keep going.'”
Second seed Karolina Pliskova, third seed Simona Halep and fifth seed Elina Svitolina will aim to reach the quarter-finals when they play their fourth-round matches on Monday.
Pliskova and Svitolina won their rain-delayed third-round matches on Sunday, while former world number one Wozniacki reached the last eight.
Williams, the 10th seed, fought back from 5-1 down to take the opening set against Bacsinszky.
But 27-year-old Bacsinszky broke Williams’ serve in the first game of the second set as she won 12 of the last 15 games in the match.
Wozniacki, 26, reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros for the first time since 2010 with a 6-1 4-6 6-2 win over Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova, the eighth seed and 2009 champion.
Pliskova, the Czech, beat Carina Witthoft of Germany 7-5 6-1, while Svitolina of Ukraine overcame Poland’s Magda Linette 6-4 7-5.
| French Open: Murray v Khachanov |
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| Venue: Roland Garros, Paris Date: Monday, 5 June |
| Coverage: Listen to online radio commentary and follow text coverage on the BBC Sport website and app. |
World number one Andy Murray will face up-and-coming Russian Karen Khachanov in the fourth round of the French Open at about 11:30 BST on Monday.
Top seed Murray, 30, is trying to reach the last eight in Paris for the sixth time in the past seven years.
Khachanov, 21, is ranked 53rd and plays his first Grand Slam last-16 match after beating American John Isner.
“Mentally I feel pretty good just now,” Briton Murray said after beating Juan Martin del Potro in round three.
Having struggled with fitness and form during much of the year, the Scot played superbly to see off the Argentine in straight sets on Saturday.
“After each round, I’m not thinking about winning,” he said.
“I didn’t come here with the mindset that I’m definitely going to go a long way.
“I was going to try and just get through the first round and hopefully feel better each day. That’s been the case so far.”
Khachanov poses a new challenge for the Wimbledon champion, and it will be the Russian’s first match against any of the very top names in the sport.
He said: “That is what we are looking for, to play on the big arenas like here, centre court, and to play against world number one. I’m really looking forward for it.”
Khachanov was born in Moscow but has trained in Barcelona for the past three years, during which time he has risen from outside the world’s top 400 to become a fixture around the top 50.
The 6ft 6in right-hander has plenty of power, as he showed in seeing off big-serving Isner in the third round.
That followed his best win to date over 13th seed Tomas Berdych.
“I practised with him before he got on to the tour when he was like 350, and he was really good,” said Murray.
“Big, strong guy. Generates a lot of power. He’s also got a big serve.”
Khachanov has hit 29 aces to Murray’s 16 in the tournament, and has spent an hour less on court at just under the eight-hour mark.
Murray will head into the match with a very different mindset, however, following his impressive performance against Del Potro.
“I believe in myself, so even when things aren’t going well, I believe I can turn it around,” said Murray.
“The five-set format has definitely helped that, so I have maybe not been as anxious going into some of the matches, because I know there is some time to turn it around.”
Scotland’s Jamie Murray has reached the quarter-finals of the French Open doubles for the first time.
The 31-year-old and Brazilian partner Bruno Soares, 35, beat Rohan Bopanna of India and Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay 7-6 6-2 on Sunday.
Murray and Soares will face the USA’s Donald Young and Mexico’s Santiago Gonzalez for a place in the semi-finals.
In 2016, Murray and Soares won the Australian and US Open doubles titles.
At fifth, the pair are now the highest seeds left in the men’s doubles competition at Roland Garros.
“It’s a big opportunity for us now to progress far in the tournament,” Murray said.
“We’ll just do our best to focus on each match and fight for every point like we did today.
“It was a real battle out there, especially the first set was really close, a really high level from everyone I thought. We’re really proud of ourselves for what we managed to do today.”