Williams will now face off against another unseeded player in Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens, who defeated eighth seed Timea Bacsinszky 7-5, 6-2.
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Bertens is deep into unchartered territory.
Thursday’s result edges Djokovic one step closer to challenging for the only Grand Slam that still eludes him.
Bacsinszky is the fourth seeded player to fall to Bertens’ march to the semifinals. The key moment came when Rogers couldn’t serve out the first after holding set point. She gave a happy thumbs up as the trainer wrapped the muscle in a bandage.
Radwanska dropped 10 consecutive games while being beaten 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 by 102nd-ranked Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria.
“I definitely knew I needed to do something different if I was going to stay in the tournament, ” Williams said. Convert either, and she’d be ahead 5-4 and serve for the match. She hit a crisp backhand victor on her second match point for the victory.
“Not their fault”, she said.
Djokovic will be poised to become the first man to win $100 million in prize money if he makes the quarterfinals for the 10th time.
The victor will play either defending champion Serena Williams or Yulia Putintseva in the semifinals.
“The match would have been totally different had I won the second but he played the beginning of the third set in a phenomenal way”.
In the women’s section, top-seeded American Serena Williams crushed her way to the quarter-finals following a 6-1, 6-1 demolition of Ukraine’s 18 seed Elina Svitolina.
While Williams and Djokovic both made it through to the quarterfinal stage of the French Open.
Murray had plenty of reason to be confident going into his match against Gasquet given his phenomenal record against both home players at the slams and Frenchmen.
Wawrinka is looking in ominous form and eased past surprise quarter-finalist Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-2 6-1 7-6 (9/7). The Belgian tossed his racket up in the air but failed to catch it.
Only Djokovic has won more matches this year than 22-year-old Austrian Thiem.
Serena Williams’ French Open quarterfinal against Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan is being delayed by rain.
The other quarter-final in the top half will be between two first-timers in David Goffin and Dominic Thiem.
Novak Djokovic is back on court at the French Open, where play has resumed after a rain delay of more than 2½ hours.
It is Djokovic’s 30th career major semifinal.
“It is a tournament and a club that I love, I enjoy playing in front of the British people, and I was looking forward to trying to win the title for a second time”, added the 14-time Grand Slam champion.
Among the matches suspended in progress: Novak Djokovic’s fourth-rounder against Roberto Bautista Agut.
The Czech seventh seed lost his cool when Australian official Wayne McEwen ordered play to be halted after Djokovic grumbled about the misty conditions.
Djokovic will be back today to contest his 28th successive major quarterfinal against Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych, a 6-3 7-5 6-3 victor over 2013 runner-up David Ferrer.
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Play is under way at the French Open under heavy clouds and with the rain in the forecast.
