Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic both advanced on Friday to the fourth round of the French Open for the 14th year in a row.
Friday saw Carlos Alcaraz and Jessica Pegula advance to the fourth round of the French Open for the second year in a row, respectively, after the tournament’s third-seeded women’s player and seventh-ranked men’s player, Andrey Rublev, were eliminated. Although Djokovic’s remarks regarding Kosovo this week have garnered headlines, his on-court performance has been rather calm, as he has advanced to the second week without dropping a set. Spanish 29th seed Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who served for the first set and lost a set point in the second, forced the Serb star to fight hard for his victory on Court Peter Chatrier.
Djokovic remarked, “I’m happy of the performance. I believed we’d play five hours today if I lost the second set.
In the round of 16, Serbia’s two-time winner Djokovic will face Juan Pablo Varillas of Peru. Djokovic has also advanced to the quarterfinals of the French Open each of the previous 13 years.
The 36-year-old wants to surpass injured opponent Rafael Nadal and take the top spot on the list of male major winners at Roland Garros.
Just one championship separates him from Margaret Court’s overall record of two and Serena Williams’ total of 23 Slams.
Djokovic has now prevailed in three of his four encounters with Davidovich Fokina. He will now face world No. 1 Alcaraz in the semifinals.
The first two sets, which featured a tough test of Djokovic’s form against Davidovich Fokina, lasted two hours and 47 minutes.
However, the third-ranked player in the world broke when he was down 6-5 in the first set before overcoming a 3-1 deficit to win a tie-break.
Davidovich After Fokina missed a set point to even the score, Djokovic won another tiebreaker, and the fans booed him for taking a medical break.
Djokovic, who easily won the third set, remarked, “That’s something that I find disrespectful and I frankly don’t understand that.”
Denis Shapovalov, the 26th seed from Canada, was destroyed by Alcaraz in the night session match, losing only seven games.
The only little hiccup in the Spaniard’s 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 triumph came when he fell down 4-1 in the second set.
However, after receiving that wake-up call, he rattled off seven straight games to go to the fourth round and face Italian Lorenzo Musetti, the 17th seed, who defeated British No. 1 Cameron Norrie 6-1, 6-2, 6-4.
“I knew I’d have my chances in the second set to come back a bit, and that’s what I did,” Alcaraz said.
After winning the 2022 US Open and then missing this year’s Australian Open due to injury, the 20-year-old is vying for a second consecutive Grand Slam championship.
Stunning Sonego
Italian Lorenzo Sonego overcame a two-set deficit to defeat Rublev and go to the round of 16.
In the fourth set tie-break, the world number 48 was just two points away from losing, but she won 5-7, 0-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 after three hours and 42 minutes.
Sonego will compete against 11th-seeded Karen Khachanov of Russia for a potential quarterfinal matchup with Djokovic.
He remarked, “I played more aggressively than in the first and second sets because it’s hard to compete against him when he’s aggressive.”
Thanasi Kokkinakis, an Australian, was defeated by 11th seed Khachanov in a thrilling match, 6-4, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (7/5).
Stefanos Tsitsipas defeated previous semifinalist Diego Schwartzman by scores of 6-2, 6-2, and 6-3 to advance in his quest for a first Grand Slam championship.
After advancing to the second week for a record-tying sixth consecutive year, the Greek fifth seed, who let a two-set lead against Djokovic in the 2021 final slip away, will now face Austrian qualifier Sebastian Ofner.
The 6-1, 6-3 defeat to Belgian Elise Mertens effectively put an end to American Pegula’s dreams.
Pegula, the third-ranked player in the world, has yet to get past the Grand Slam tournament’s quarterfinal round.
The 2021 runner-up, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, will be the next opponent for the past Australian Open semifinalist.
Sabalenka ‘not safe’
Aryna Sabalenka refused to do an official post-match press conference after powering into the last 16 for the first time with a straight-sets win over Kamilla Rakhimova.
The Belarusian claimed she “did not feel safe” when asked to condemn her country’s support of Russia’s war in Ukraine during a press conference earlier this week.
The second seed is yet to drop a set in the tournament after a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win against world number 82 Rakhimova.
Sabalenka will face former US Open champion Sloane Stephens in the fourth round.
Russian Daria Kasatkina, a semi-finalist last year, raced past American Peyton Stearns 6-0, 6-1 in under an hour.
On Sunday, the ninth seed will play Elina Svitolina for a spot in the quarterfinals.
Svitolina defeated Anna Blinkova 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 to go to the fourth round on her first Grand Slam participation since the 2022 Australian Open.
