World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka defeated 16th seed Naomi Osaka 7-5, 6-3 inches. Advance to French Open quarterfinals in Monday’s fourth roundthe number of players on the women’s side was reduced to eight. Sabalenka is yet to drop a set in Paris and is two wins away from reaching the final on clay after losing to American Coco Gauff last summer.
Osaka, who reached the fourth round at Roland Garros for the first time in her career, had not faced Sabalenka in a major since the 2018 US Open – her only win against the hard-hitting Belarusian.
Sabalenka, a four-time major champion and world No. 1, has never played at Roland Garros in her career and will face Diana Schneider in Wednesday’s quarterfinals. Schneider defeated the last remaining American, Madison Keys. The decisive third set featured bagels.
Marta Kostyuk defeated four-time champion Iga Swiatek in straight sets on Sunday to qualify for the French Open main draw for the first time in her career. Kostyuk, who is undefeated on clay this year, dominated throughout the match, taking the first set 7-5 before ruining Swiatek’s birthday with a 6-1 victory in the second set.
Kostyuk’s victory ensures there will be new singles champions on either side of the singles tie at Roland Garros.
“I still can’t believe I won against an incredible player who has won here four times, even though I had lost to her (three times) and had never taken a set from her,” Kostyuk said. “I think the most important thing I’ve ever done is really just try to have fun. I woke up this morning and thought, what an incredible day I’m going to have today to play against Iga at Chatelier.”
Kostyuk will face seventh-seeded Elina Svitolina on Tuesday. Svitolina has reached four Grand Slam semi-finals, including a strong performance at the Australian Open earlier this year.
Anna Kalinskaya overcame a three-set tie-break with Anastasia Potapova to advance to the second quarter of her career and will next face Maya Chawalinska. 19-year-old Russian sensation Mila Andreeva, seeded eighth, will face Sorana Cirstea in her first match on Tuesday.
Women’s quarterfinal schedule
- (8) Mira Andreeva vs. Solana Cirstea (Tuesday, 5 a.m.)
- (7) Elina Svitolina vs. (16) Marta Kostyuk (6:30 am)
- (22) Anna Kalinskaja vs. Maya Chawalinska (Wednesday)
- (1) Aryna Sabalenka vs. Boyce; (25) Diana Schneider (Wednesday)
Tiafoe fell short of Arnaldi in a thrilling five-set match
American Francis Tiafoe missed out on a magical chance to reach the finals of this tournament. lost a five-set battle to Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi (7-6, 6-7, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4) in the final game of the fourth round on Monday. Tiafoe overcame a loss in the first set tiebreak and played the best tennis of her career to take a 2-1 lead into the fourth set, securing two breaks of serve to take a 4-1 lead. But then things started to slip away as Arnaldi broke back, held serve, and was up 30-0 at 5-4 before needing another break. He did just that, forcing a tiebreaker in the fourth and winning.
In a match that lasted five hours and 26 minutes, Arnaldi broke Tiafoe twice in the final set and served out at 6-4. Tiafoe’s loss marks the first time since 2017 that an American man or woman will not qualify for the French Open quarterfinals.
With Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic defeated, the new favorite to win the tournament is second-seeded Alexander Zverev, who will face Rafael Jodal on Tuesday. The German has reached three Grand Slam finals in his career, including the 2024 French Open, but has never won the title.
Zverev, who dropped just one set in his first four matches, was asked if this was a tournament he should have lost. He didn’t take kindly to repeated questions about the open field, considering the big names are no longer in the slot.
“So, can you give me the answer? I mean, let’s move on. No, I’ll give you the same answer that I gave you two days ago,” Zverev said. “I’m focused on the upcoming match. That’s the only thing I can control. I focused on De Jong. We had a good match. We won. Next time I’ll focus on Judal and hope we can have a good match. That’s my only concern.”
The other match on Tuesday will pit 26th seed Jakub Mensik against 28th seed Joao Fonseca. Wednesday’s two quarter-final matches will see No. 10 seed Flavio Cobolli face No. 4 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime and Arnaldi against Matteo Berrettini.
Men’s quarterfinal schedule
- (2) Alexander Zverev vs. (27) Rafael Jodal (Tuesday, 8 a.m.)
- (26) Jakub Mensik vs. (28) Joao Fonseca (14:15)
- (4) Felix Auger-Aliassime vs. (10) Flavio Cobolli (Wednesday)
- Matteo Arnaldi vs. Matteo Berrettini (Wednesday)
