We head to the quarterfinals at the French Open with only seeds remaining in the draw. So while there wasn’t too much drama in the opening rounds, we should have great remaining matches set up. The bottom half of the draw will feature an all-Swiss matchup and the last remaining Frenchman while the top half will set its eyes on the most-anticipated Slam quarterfinal in recent memory. Rafael Nadal got a bit of a fight from Jack Sock while Novak Djokovic looked like a man on a mission steamrolling Richard Gasquet. The two will meet in a rematch of last year’s final. The winner will certainly be the favorite to win this tournament. If Nadal loses, he will fall down to #10 for the first time since June of 2005.
Who Looked Good:
David Ferrer (defeated Marin Cilic 62 62 75): Ferrer played unreal tennis in a comprehensive victory over the US Open champion. Cilic is still coming back from injury and not at 100%, but this performance was some of the best tennis we’ve seen from Ferrer since his run to the finals here in 2013. His court coverage was impeccable, his angles were exquisite, and it even felt like he had more power on his shots than usual. If he brings this form to his next match, we could definitely see him dispatch Andy Murray in straights as well.
Stan Wawrinka (defeated Gilles Simon 61 64 62): Wawrinka won 95 points in this match. He hit 34 winners. That means that over 33% of the points he won came on winners. That’s not something many players can do against Simon’s grinding defense. Wawrinka is striking the ball cleanly and using the court well. Of course, he’ll need to step things into another gear entirely with Federer up next, but he’s getting there.
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (defeated Tomas Berdych 63 62 67(5) 63): Tsonga has one of the most aesthetically-pleasing games in tennis. When he is striking the ball cleanly and playing smart tennis, there is almost no one in the world who can stay with him. The consistency has never really been there, though, which is the problem. He showed moments of his peak self in this match, hitting the ball beautifully and rocketing groundstrokes all over the court. He has not reached another Grand Slam final since his first one in 2008. He has a favorable draw to maybe do it here at his home Slam.
Who Looked Bad:
Gael Monfils (lost to Roger Federer 36 64 46 16): There is no shame in losing to Federer. But it’s how you play that says everything. Monfils fought hard on the first day of this rain-delayed match, playing evenly and splitting sets with the Swiss #1 before play stopped for the night. On the second day, though, Monfils was basically a no-show. He played poorly in the third set and really just gave up the fourth, losing those last two sets in just over an hour. It was a disappointing performance from the usually-entertaining Frenchman.
Tomas Berdych (lost to Tsonga 36 26 76(5) 36): Maybe it was a back injury. Maybe it was the weather. Berdych had tape all over his back and never plays well in the wind. Whatever the causes, though, it was a poor performance from the #4 seed, who just couldn’t find any rhythm. Tsonga was going to be a tough matchup for him, but Berdych really should have done a lot better. This would have been over in three quick sets if not for a Tsonga mental lapse at the end of the third.
Teymuraz Gabashvili (lost to Kei Nishikori 36 46 26): It’s hard to fault Gabashvili too much for this. After all, Nishikori is a top 5 player who reached a Grand Slam final last year. But Gabashvili did not play well. He got tense and frustrated by his inability to outhit Nishikori and ended up with a staggering 30 unforced errors while only hitting 13 winners. It’s certainly not the performance he wanted in only his second career French Open fourth round.
Match of the Round:
It’s tough to pick a match from this round as the most compelling. No match went the full five-set difference. We only saw three matches go four sets, none of which were ever in doubt. The closest there was to any question was when Tsonga went down a break early in the fourth. But he got his head back into the match and quickly took control, sapping away any drama. Similarly, Jack Sock looked like he might give us some excitement at the end of the third set, but Nadal took control of the fourth set early and Sock never quite managed to break back through, though the set was much closer than the final score indicates.
So instead of picking on a match to highlight, let’s highlight this stat: this is the first time ever at the French Open that all of Djokovic, Murray, Federer, and Nadal have played on the same day. And let’s remember what we have to look forward to–a Nadal/Djokovic quarterfinal on Wednesday.
Enjoy what you see? Check out LastWord’s full French Open coverage here. It’s the only place you’ll every need for everything French Open.
Main Photo:
