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2020 French Open: The story so far

Roar Guru
4th October, 2020
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Roar Guru
4th October, 2020
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We have reached the halfway point of this year’s rescheduled French Open and, as always, there is so much to talk about as we edge closer to crowning our final grand slam singles champions of 2020.

As expected, in the men’s draw, the world’s top two – Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal – advanced to the fourth round of the tournament, where Nadal cruised past American Sebastian Korda, the son of former Australian Open champion Petr, in straight sets overnight.

Neither Nadal nor Djokovic has dropped a set as they charge towards a possible championship showdown, which would see the Spaniard shoot for his 13th French Open title and a 20th major title, which would see him draw level with Roger Federer on as many titles.

Significantly, if Nadal does win the title, he will register his 100th match win at the French Open in the championship match and his 999th career match victory at the same time.

That would see the 34-year-old Spaniard go into next year’s Australian Open with the chance to overtake Federer on the grand slam men’s leaderboard and cement himself as the greatest men’s tennis player of the modern era.

Djokovic, meanwhile, has put behind his US Open controversy to again reach the final 16 at Roland Garros, where only Russia’s Karen Khachanov stands in the way of him and a rematch against Pablo Carreno Busta.

As we all know too well, the Djoker was defaulted from his match against the Spaniard at last month’s US Open, marking his sole defeat in an otherwise impressive season that saw him claim a record eighth Australian Open title in January.

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Having knocked out compatriot Robert Bautista Agut in the third round, the US Open semi-finalist next faces German qualifier Daniel Altmaier as he looks to match his 2017 feat of reaching the final eight at Roland Garros.

Novak Djokovic plays a backhand

(Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)

The biggest challenger to Djokovic and Nadal for the title, Dominic Thiem, also remains alive in the draw after defeating Hugo Gaston in five sets overnight.

However, fourth seed Daniil Medvedev’s woes at Roland Garros continued when he was beaten by Hungarian Marton Fucsovics in the first round.

The Russian has not yet won a match on the Parisian clay courts and must now wait until May next year to be able to break his duck in the French capital.

2008 semi-finalist Gael Monfils was the other top ten seed to drop his opening-round match, beaten by Alexander Bublik in four sets.

But undoubtedly the match to watch tonight (AEDT) is that between Grigor Dimitrov and reigning ATP Finals champion Stefanos Tsitsipas, with both men aiming to reach their first French Open quarter-final.

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In the women’s draw we saw only 13 seeded players advance to the third round, marking the fewest number of seeds to get that far since the seeding range was expanded from 16 to 32 at Wimbledon in 2001.

Among the seeds not to be left in the draw are second seed Karolina Pliskova, whose second-round loss to Jelena Ostapenko means that she has now gone six straight majors without getting past the fourth round, and it’s her third tournament this year without reaching the second week.

Sixth seed Serena Williams also departed after being forced to withdraw before her second-round match against Tsvetana Pironkova due to an Achilles injury she picked up at Flushing Meadows last month.

Time is running out for the American to equal Margaret Court’s record of 24 major singles titles, and she’ll have four majors in which to do it before she turns 40 next September.

Serena Williams plays a backhand

(Photo by Fred Lee/Getty Images)

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Former champions Ostapenko, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Garbine Muguruza also failed to make the fourth round, while last year’s finalist, Marketa Vondrousova, lost her opening match to Iga Swiatek, who has just proceeded to upset top seed Simona Halep in the fourth round to reach the quarter-finals.

Halep’s failure to reach the quarter-finals means that we’ll have a brand new French Open women’s champion, a first-time grand slam finalist from the top half of the draw and two brand-new French Open finalists.

It also means Ashleigh Barty – who was recently spotted at the Brisbane Lions vs Richmond AFL qualifying final at the Gabba while Halep was dominating Amanda Anisimova on the other side of the globe – will hang on to her world No. 1 ranking for the moment.

Of the women remaining in the draw, only Sofia Kenin and Petra Kvitova have won a major title, but neither woman has reached the final at Roland Garros, with Kvitova coming closest in 2012 when she reached the semi-finals where she was thrashed by Maria Sharapova.

One player to watch as we enter the second week of the French Open is young Spaniard Paula Badosa, who upset 2018 runner-up Sloane Stephens and 2017 champion Ostapenko to reach the last 16 at a major for the first time.

The 2015 girls champion is up against German veteran Laura Siegemund tonight (AEDT), and a win could see her face two-time Wimbledon champion Kvitova in the quarter-finals, and reigning Australian Open champion Kenin in the final four.

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