Day 10 was yesterday and some great quarter-finals were on display. A spot in the last 4 was on the line for all the players on day 10…The first match of the day was between 2 unseeded players, Muchova and Pavlyuchenkova. Pavlyuchenkova had been and faced a Roland Garros quarter-final before while Muchova had not had many grand slam quarter-finals under her belt. The first set was always going to be important and at 4-4 Muchova managed to break to lead 5-4 with her service game to come however she could not finish off the set and the score became level again at 5-5. Thankfully for Muchova she managed to get a second bite at it as she broke to lead 6-5 and this time round she made no mistake as she took the set 7-5. Muchova then started to miss less as her confidence grew and Pavlyuchenkova started to crumble under the pressure in the 2nd set. Muchova ran away with it as she took the set 6-2 and the match along with it. Muchova came into the tournament looking for ranking points for Wimbledon and now is in a grand slam semi-final. Her opponent was the winner of 2nd seed, Sabalenka vs unseeded Svitolina. Svitolina played a clean opening set but even so it was Sabalenka who powered her way past the Ukranian to take the set 6-4. Sabalenka then gave away a few cheap points to allow Svitolina the break in the second set at 2-0 but that break did not last long and before Svitolina knew it she was a break down 2-4. Sabalenka managed to just about carry the break till the end to book her spot in another grand slam quarter-final. She is loving 2023 at the moment.

On the mens side it was 3rd seed, Djokovic against 11th seed, Khachanov up first. Khachanov needed to have a good start if he wanted any chance of winning this encounter and what a start he got as he played one of his cleanest sets of his career to take the set 6-4. He then hung about in the 2nd set to eventually take it into a tiebreak but this time it was Djokovic’s turn to play one of the cleanest tiebreaks as he took it 7-0 and we were 1 set all in this match. From then on Djokovic was getting more and more opportunites on the Khachanov serve and this pressure told as Djokovic took the next 2 sets 6-2; 6-4 to book his spot in the last 4 once again.
His opponent was the winner of a mouth watering encounter between number 1 in the world Alcaraz and 5th seed, Tsitsipas which was played in the night session. The match however was not very close as Alcaraz played incredible tennis (I am not sure there is any word which can describe how well he played). However after cruising to a lead of 6-2; 6-1; 5-2 (15-40), he had a hiccup and lost concentration which allowed Tsitsipas to craw back to 5-5 and all of a sudden it felt like there was a match once again. Thankfully for Alcaraz he regained focus and took the tiebreak 7-5 to book his spot in the semi-finals where he will face 3rd seed and 22 time grand slam champion, Djokovic for a place in the Roland Garros final.

Picks which lost on day 10:
Men: Tsitsipas and Khachanov
Lady: Svitolina

Onto the Fantasy Leaderboard:
‘Royal Roland’ still lead however their lead has been reduced to 8 points over 2nd placed ‘Hawk Eye’. ‘Rolanding on a River’ was in a joint 2nd yesterday but now find themselves in a joint 3rd today with ‘Volley Vibes’. ‘Nandos’ move down another spot and now sit in 5th while ‘Team Kudu’ has moved up 6 places and into 6th. ‘Team Kudu’ was 20th 3 days ago and now seem to be fighting for a prize position…and amazing achievement. Can they continue to rise?
On the other end of the leaderboard we have ‘Serve with Eish’ who are back into the wooden spoon position after ‘Slider 2′ move back ahead of them.’Rolan Stones’ is also right there in the fight for the wooden spoon.

Matches to Watch Day 11

• Zverev(22) vs Etcheverry (live)
• Rune(6) vs Ruud(4) (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 fantasy organiser.