PARIS ( Associated Press) – The latest (all time local) on the French Open Grand Slam tennis tournament:
8:45 am
Rafael Nadal beat Felix Auger-Aliassim 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the fourth round of the French Open against rival Novak Djokovic to set a record 59th matchup.
Sunday’s thrilling event on the court Philippe Chatrier was only the third five-setter Nadal played at Roland Garros, where he has won 13 of his record 21 Grand Slam titles.
Nadal leads 3–0 in those competitions, which form part of his 109–3 total in the clay-court tournament.
Of those three career losses in Paris, two against Djokovic, the owner of 20 major titles, and two at the French Open. Last year, Djokovic defeated Nadal in the semi-finals on his way to the trophy.
Djokovic leads 30-28 in his overall series. The other two men have not played each other so often in the professional era of tennis.
8:35 pm
Sloane Stephens made a comeback after defeating Jill Tekman 6-2, 6-0 in the quarterfinals of the French Open for the first time since 2019.
Stephens won the 2017 US Open and was runner-up at Roland Garros the following year. But she has not been a member of the last eight in any major tournament since she lost in the quarterfinals in Paris three years ago.
Stephens will next face Coco Gauff in an All-American matchup.
7:05 pm
Third seed Alexander Zverev is in his fourth quarterfinal at Roland Garros, thanks to a 7-6 (11), 7-5, 6-3 win over 131st-ranked qualifier Bernabé Zapata Miralles.
Zverev had lost in the semi-finals of the French Open a year earlier.
His best Grand Slam performance was as a finalist at the 2020 US Open.
The 25-year-old German will play either No. 6 Carlos Alcaraz or No. 21 Karen Khachanov in the quarterfinals.
4:05 pm
American teenager Coco Gauff hit a backhand around the net post in the first set and earned a berth in the French Open quarterfinals for the second year in a row.
The 18-year-old American stunned 31st seed Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-4, 6-0 at Court Philippe Chatrier on Sunday to register a 4-all victory in the first set.
Gauff exploded at Wimbledon when she defeated Venus Williams to reach the fourth round, becoming the youngest qualifier in tournament history.
Her first Grand Slam quarterfinal came in Paris in 2021, when she lost to eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova, and has now made it again.
18th seed Gauff’s next opponent will be 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens of the United States or number 23 Jill Tekman of Switzerland.
3:50 pm
Defending champion Novak Djokovic has reached his record 16th career Roland Garros quarterfinal and may find a familiar foe in the next net: Rafael Nadal.
1 ranked Djokovic quickly recovered from a few bleeps at the start of the second set on Sunday to register a 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 win over 15th seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina on the court. Susan Lenglen.
Djokovic has won all 12 sets he has played in this year’s tournament so far and has lost a total of 30 games in four matches.
He went 3-0 down in the second set but went on to win seven games in a row and take a 1-0 lead in the third set.
Djokovic has made it to the quarter-finals in Paris for 13 years in a row. He won part of his collection of 20 Grand Slam trophies in 2016 and last year. Only one person has won more – Nadal, with 21.
And if 13-time French Open champion Nadal wins a fourth-round match against Felix Auger-Aliassim later on Sunday, the two long-standing rivals will face each other in the quarterfinals. It will be the 59th face-off between Djokovic and Nadal, more than any other two men in the professional era of tennis.
Nadal entered his match against Auger-Aliassim in Paris with 15 quarterfinal appearances.
2:15 pm
US Open runner-up Leyla Fernandez advanced to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros for the first time with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win over Amanda Anisimova.
The 19-year-old Fernandez had more than double the winners, 35, in the form of unforced errors, 17, and continued his run of impressive comebacks in the tournament. She broke Anisimova six times and has now won 23 of her opponents’ serve games through four matches.
Fernandez had not won more than two consecutive main draw matches on clay until this visit to Paris.
The Canadian made a breakthrough last year by making the finals at the US Open and losing to Emma Radukanu in a matchup between a pair of unseeded teenagers.
Fernandez, the youngest player to win a WTA title in 2022, has been seeded 17th at the French Open and will next play Italy’s Martina Trevison.
The 27th seeded Anisimova was a semifinalist at Roland Garros in 2019 at the age of 17. The American knocked out four-time major champion Naomi Osaka in the first round this year.
1:20 pm
Italy’s Martina Trevison has reached the quarter-finals of Roland Garros for the second time in three matches.
Travisson, ranked 59, won the last four games to beat Aliksandra Sasnovi 7-6 (10), 7-5 on Sunday.
Sasnovi served 5-3 for the second set, but was broken by love there, part of a stretch in which Trevison collected 13 out of 15 points.
Travisson won his first WTA title in Rabat a week before the start of the French Open and is now on a nine-match winning streak. Eight of these victories came in straight sets.
She was 159th in the qualifiers in 2020, when she made a surprise run in the French Open quarterfinals before losing to eventual champion Inga Swietec. This time around, Trevison will take on Leyla Fernandez or Amanda Anisimova for a semi-final berth.
Travisson has lost in the first or second round in six other Grand Slam appearances.
47th-ranked Sasnovi defeated major champions Angelique Kerber and Emma Raducanu to reach the fourth round in Paris.
Sasnovi has never made it to the quarterfinals in 28 major tournaments of his career.
12:00 PM
Fourth round action at Roland Garros gets underway on the coldest day of the tournament so far, with a temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 Celsius).
Five American women made the round of 16 at a clay-court Grand Slam tournament for the first time since 2003, and three are in action on Sunday.
At the age of 17, 2019 semifinalist Amanda Anisimova is playing 2021 US Open runner-up Leyla Fernandez at Court Philippe Chatrier in Paris. That match will be followed by Coco Gauff – at 18, she is the youngest woman left in the draw – against 31st seed Elise Mertens of Belgium. And 2017 US Open champion Sloane Stephens meets 23rd seed Jill Teichmann of Switzerland at Court Suzanne Lenglen.
Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are to play their fourth round matches later in the day. If 13-time French Open champion Nadal beats No. 9 Felix Auger-Aliassime, and defending champion Djokovic goes past No. 15 Diego Schwartzman, the owners of the combined 41 major titles will face each other in the quarter-finals.
It will be the 59th matchup between Djokovic and Nadal, expanding his record for the most meetings between any two men in the professional era of tennis.
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