It’s the quarter-final many earmarked when the draw was released for the French Open when third seed Simona Halep takes on fifth seed Elina Svitolina. Join The Roar for live scores of the match from around 10pm (AEST).
Halep came into the tournament as the favourite to win her first grand slam title, and the Romanian has not disappointed so far, winning every set throughout the first four rounds.
Making it more impressive, it’s been far from an easy run for the 25-year-old, and her fourth round proved exactly the sort of form she is in.
After three relatively straightforward wins over Jana Cepelova, Tatjana Maria and Darya Kasatkina – none of whom are push-overs – she took on the seeded Carla Suarez Navarro and put on a clinic, taking the victory 6-1, 6-1.
Svitolina has also been in good form on her favoured surface, but it’s been far from a simple run, having to bounce back from a set down twice.
After a straight-sets win over Yaroslava Shvedova to get things underway, she then dropped the first to Tsvetana Pironkova, before bouncing back to take the final two 6-2, 6-3.
Another straight sets win followed over Magda Linette, before she again had to bounce back against Petra Martic, only taking the third 7-5 with the pressure getting to Linette on serve.
She showed her class in being able to come back, but a recovery effort against a player of Halep’s stature is going to be far tougher.
The pair have played on three occasions and while Halep won the first two, Svitolina will take some confidence into this match after beating her on clay, in the final at Rome just a few weeks before the start of the French Open.
The winner will move onto the semi-finals and face either hometown favourite Caroline Garcia, or more likely the second seed, Karolina Pliskova.
Prediction
As good as Svitolina is playing, there seems to be no stopping Halep. She should roll through to the semi-finals, even if she is to drop her first set of the tournament – which appears likely.
Halep in three sets.
Be sure to join The Roar for live scores of this French Open quarter-final from around 10pm (AEST) or at the completion of Novak Djokovic and Dominic Thiem on the Suzanne-Lenglen Court – and don’t forget to add a comment in the section below.