Day 6 at Roland Garros saw the 3rd round matches of the bottom half of the men’s draw. Most of the matches were very one-sided, but there was still plenty of quality on display.
On the plus side
Daniil Medvedev had previously struggled a lot against Opelka, but this time he easily dominated the big American, easily returning his serves and breaking him 5 times for a very comfortable win. As unlikely as it looked at the beginning of the tournament, a spot in the final and the #1 ranking might actually be in play for Medvedev if he maintains this sort of level.
Stefanos Tsitsipas struggled a lot in the first 3 sets, but he did well to overcome the massive serving of John Isner. Things could have easily gone wrong for the Greek considering the level Isner was serving at, but he remained composed and secured his berth in the last 16.
Federico Delbonis has put in a lot of work on clay this season and it’s really paid off at this tournament. After an impressive and surprisingly routine victory over Fabio Fognini, the Argentine will now face off against Davidovich Fokina for a maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal and he has to be feeling optimistic about his chances.
Who looked bad
Casper Rudd looked to have an ideal draw for a deep Slam run here, but it all came crashing down against Davidovich Fokina. The Noerwegian actually won 15 more points than his opponents and won a set 6-0, but he was tremendously unclutch, especially compared to Fokina, who even came up with an underarm serve break point down, serving for the match and after having wasted 4 match points.
Cristian Garin was very unconvincing again despite the win and it’s fair to say he has benefitted from a very favorable draw to get this far. Medvedev on clay seems like a beatable opponent but if Garin doesn’t seriously step up his game it will surely be the end of the line for him.
