Roland Garros day 8 and the start of the 2nd week as round 4 got underway. The first matches of the day were Khachanov the 11th seed against Sonego and Pavlyuchenkova was up against 28th seed, Mertens. I will start with the mens match between Khachanov and Sonego. The Italian, Sonego, was coming off a huge comeback win against the 7th seed, Rublev, and he continued his good run of form in the first set as he raced away, eventually taking the set 6 games to 1. Khachanov however was just warming up and he stuck around in the tight second set until he managed to break Sonego and take the 2nd set 6-4. A brutal 3rd set was then played as both players knew how important it was to lead 2 sets to 1. The set ended up in a tiebreak and what a tiebreak it was. The tiebreak started perfectly for the Italian as he raced away to a 4-0 lead before losing the next 3 points to make it 4-3. Khachanov then went 5-3 down after he made a forehand error but then he won the next 3 points and from 0-4 he was the player with the first set point in 3rd set tiebreak. Sonego saved it well before conjuring up a set point of his own at 7-6. This time is was Khachanov’s turn to save a set point and then he won the next point to set up another a set point for himself. Sonego then crumbled under the pressure as he served a double fault to lose the all important 3rd set. The 4th set began and Sonego started to struggled with cramps after his huge win last time out. This allowed Khachanov to take home his advantage as he won the 4th set 6-1 and the match along with it.
The first ladies match was Pavlyuchenkova against 28th seed Mertens. Mertens had looked impressive so far in the tournament while Pavlyuchenkova who had had a really poor start to the year on the WTA tour had finally started to win some matches and looked to be improving in form and confidence everyday. The first set went the way of the 28th seed, as she broke Pavlyuchenkova in her first service game and held that break all the way through the set. Pavlyuchenkova however had come off back-to-back wins from 2 sets down so this was not a foreign position for her to find herself in. Mertens started the 2nd set off just like the 1st set as she broke Pavyuchenkova in her first service game of the set again but this time she was broken straight back. However she broke and held and looked to be on her way to the quarter-finals as she was a set and 3-1 up. An extremely long game was played at 3-1 and it turned out to be a pivotal game because it felt as if a double break would be a step to far for the former French Open finalist. She somehow managed to eventually hold and then broke Mertens easily and it was level once again at 3-3. The set then went on serve until the tiebreak was reached at 6-6. Pavlyuchenkova needed a good start to the tiebreak and that is exactly what she got as she led 5-1 at the change of ends and she ended up taking it 7-3 to set up a deciding set. The momentum felt like it had now shifted to Pavlyuchenkova who was going for 3 wins in a row from a set down. She broke in the first game of the 3rd set and then broke again in the 3rd game and led 3-0. Mertens broke back but continued to struggle on serve and this led to Pavlyuchenkova winning the set 6-3 and the match with it. A great win from the unseeded former finalist.

The next 2 matches of the day were Muchova vs Avanesyan and Djokovic vs Varilles. Avanesyan had come through qualifying and beat 12th seed, Bencic, to reach this point of the grand slam while the more experienced Muchova was finally putting a run of good matches together as she had beaten 2 seed, Sakkari and Begu so far in the French Open. The match started with an early break as Muchova took the opening 2 games of the match. Avanesyan though showed the reason why she had made it so far in the competition as she broke back and held to make it 2-2. Muchova however had settled in the match and won the next 3 games to lead 5-2 opening set. The nerves got to her however as she failed to serve out the set at 5-2 but then served it out to love at 5-4 to lead by a set. It was always going to be a big ask for the 20 year old to get back into the match but it did not help that she did not hold her very first service game of the 2nd set. Muchova was able to keep distance between her and Avanesyan throughout the 2nd set and eventually took it 6-3 to book a spot in the quarter-finals of Roland Garros where she will play fellow unseeded player, Pavlyuchekova. Djokovic on paper had an easy 4th round match as he was up against unseeded Varilles who had played 3, 5 set matches to reach this point of the grand slam. Djokovic made light work of Varilles as the 3rd seed dropped just 7 games to reach another french open quarter-final. His 17th quarter-final at Roland Garros which is 1 more than Nadal who has only reached 16 French open quarter-finals.

Alcaraz the top seed was up against 17th seed, Musetti and this was an interesting match up because Alcaraz had looked good but had dropped a set on his way to the 4th round while Musetti had won all his matches comfortably in straight sets. However when the match got going it was clear to see that Alcaraz had been using the first 3 rounds to gain confidence and momentum in his challenge to win the French Open this year. He was broken in the first game of the match but after that game he only dropped another 6 games in the entire match.
Svitolina who was playing her first grand slam since giving birth was up against the 9th seed, Kasatkina, who had dropped just 1 game in her previous match. Svitolina managed to continue her run of form as she took the opening set 6-4 and was a set away from another grand slam quarter-final. Svitolina was playing some great tennis and managed to break at 4-4 to set up a chance to serve out the match. However Kasatkina had other ideas as she broke back to make it 5-5. Svitolina had a second chance to serve out the match as she broke the 9th seed again at 5-5. Once again however she failed to do so and the 2nd set needed to be decided in a tiebreak and what a tiebreak it turned out to be. At the change of ends it was 3-3 then it was 4-4 and then 5-5. There was just nothing to seperate the two ladies. A backhand sailed long by Kasatkina at 5-5 set up a set/match point for Svitolina. Kasatkina hit another unforced error and the dream comeback continues for Svitolina as she makes the quarter-finals of the French Open.

The last 2 matches of the day were Tsitsipas against Ofner and Sabalenka vs Stephens. Ofner had ,just like Avensyan, come through qualifying to reach the 4th round but Tsitsipas was just too good, as the 5th seed cruised past Ofner 7-5; 6-3; 6-0 to set up a mouth watering clash against 1st seed, Alcaraz, in the quarter-finals.

The night session was finally headlined by a ladies match and it was the 2nd seed, Sabalenka against former grand slam winner, Stephens. Sabalenka started off ridiculously well and raced to a 5-0 lead before everything started to go wrong. The 2nd seed was just unable to take her chances and found herself pegged back to 5-5. Thankfully she managed to finally hold serve again which meant we ended up going to a tiebreak. Stephens led at the break 4-2 before Sabalenka made it 5-5. 2 unforced errors was a disappointing way for the set to end but Sabalenka was thankful that the unforced errors were by Stephens which meant the 2nd seed led by 1 set to love. Sabalenka then managed to get the early break in the 2nd set and held it throughout the set which meant that she took the set 6-4 and reached another grand slam quarter-final. She is also the last seed remaining in the bottom half of the ladies draw.

Picks which lost on day 8:
Men: Musetti and Sonego
Ladies: Kasatkina and Mertens

Onto the fantasy leaderboard:
‘Royal Roland’ continue to lead the fantasy tournament but their nearest rival is no longer ‘Pat’s Pick’ but ‘Nandos’ who are now sitting in 2nd. ‘Hawk Eye’ sits in 3rd while ‘Pat’s Pick’ dropped 2 places into 4th spot. ‘Rolanding on a River’ sit in 5th and the last prize is currently going to ‘Volley Vibes’ who sit in 6th.
We have finally got a new wooden spoon holder as ‘Serve with Eish’ was overtaken by ‘What the Deuce!’.

Matches to watch on day 9:

• Pera vs Jabeur(7) (11:00)
• Sorribes Tormo vs Haddad Maia(14) (11:00)
• Rune(6) vs Cerundolo(23) (12:15)
• Jarry vs Ruud(4) (12:15)
• Swiatek(1) vs Tsurenko (14:15)
• Schmiedlova vs Gauff(6) (14:15)
• Etcheverry vs Nishioka(27) (15:30)
• Dimitrov(28) vs Zverev(22) (20:15)

Jared

Jared matriculated in 2020 from Wynberg Boys High School in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa. His passion for tennis afforded him the opportunity of travelling to Europe. He is a quizmaster and a tennis fantasy league organiser.http://Eishonline.co.za/jftl