Richard Gasquet’s coach, Sergi Bruguera, had some strong opinion when it came to his pupil’s Roland Garros quarter-final opponent, Andy Murray and added that he didn’t think the Scot was unbeatable.
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Aiming to win his fourth consecutive major trophy and complete a career Grand Slam, Djokovic continued his charm offensive with the fans after a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1, 7-5 victory over No. 14 Roberto Bautista Agut, cajoling a ball boy to join him in bowing, then donning a floppy yellow hat.
Having lost to nine-time victor Rafael Nadal twice and world number one Novak Djokovic in five sets past year, Murray finds himself this time facing defending champion Stan Wawrinka.
On the other side of the draw, Novak Djokovic will play Tomas Berdych while Dominic Thiem will play David Goffin to see who makes up the other semi-final pairing. After Murray’s ace made it 3-2, Gasquet got to a drop shot and wound up for what should have been an easy one-handed backhand, his signature shot.
“The first two sets were really good tennis”.
“It was very, very important to win the second set because it was a very physical match up to that point”, he said courtside.
“At least I got used to playing against a single-hander who can use the angles, change the direction up the line”.
However, the fourth-round winner’s cheque is a far cry from the real prize Djokovic has his eyes on this week.
While we wait for play to begin, however, do check out Kevin Mitchell’s day 10 report after another desperately soggy day at Roland Garros … Because of showers, zero points were played Monday, and only about 2 hours’ worth were contested Tuesday. “I think it’s going to be a great challenge and a great semi-final”.
And the man known as Stuckey in some circles is able to advance into the next round, getting a straight sets win 6-2, 6-1, 7-6.
Both Serena and Venus Williams will be playing in their fourth round matches, which they’ve been trying to play since Monday.
Hence it was little surprise they were all in a hurry to play catch-up on Wednesday.
“The first few games she made some errors”, Williams said, “and in the last 12 games, I made all the errors”.
Wasting no time at all after waiting two days to play, defending champion Serena moved closer to her record-equaling 22nd Grand Slam title with a 6-1, 6-1 victory over 18th-seeded Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in only 62 minutes.
“My first win over Venus is – well, it’s just fantastic”, the beaming Swiss eighth seed said after reaching the last eight for the second year running.
Serena will take on another unexpected quarter-finalist in the shape of Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva, who beat Spanish 12th seed Carla Suarez Navarro.
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Bertens reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal by beating 15th-seeded Madison Keys of the United States 7-6 (4), 6-3.
