Tsitsipas, Rublev, Djokovic, through to French Open quarterfinals

Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece defeated Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov 6/3, 7/6(9), 6/2 to reach his first quarterfinals of the French Open.

In the second match, Russia’s 22-year-old Andre Rublev defeated the giant from Hungary, Marton Fucsovics 6/7, 7/5, 6/4, 7/6 to reach the last eight in Paris. The top-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia moved to the quarterfinals by defeating Karen Khachanov of Russia 6/4, 6/3.

In the first set, a costly double fault by Dimitrov gave Tsitsipas the service break and the first set 6/3. Tsitsipas called for a medical time out and the trainer attends to his left eye. He took the first game of the second set that progressed with the serve. Serving to stay in the set at 5-6, Tsitsipas delivered an ace to reach 40-30 but an unforced forehand error led to deuce. Dimitrov had a set point but it was cancelled and Tsitsipas held serve for 6-all. The lanky Greek took Dimitrov’s service point and held his two to lead 3-0 and 4-2 at the changeover.

At 6-5 set point, Dimitrov lit a ball that barely touched the line. He also cancelled a second set point and then lost two set points before a netted forehand gave Tsitsipas the game by 11 points to nine.

Tsitsipas sped to a 3-0 lead in the third set before his opponent took the fourth game in which the Greek slipped and rolled over the clay. While cleaning up, he was given the code violation of communicating with his dad who is his coach. He maintained his composure to win his serve for 4-1 while Dimitrov prevailed in a long game to reduce the tally to 4-2. Tsitsipas took the seventh game with a service winner.

Serving to stay in the match, Dimitrov committed his 23rd unforced error to reach 15-all, then faced match point at 15-40 and lost the game when he hit a routine backhand into the net to end the battle of two hours and 26 minutes.

Marton won the first set in a tiebreak and led 5-2 in the second. He was broken when serving for the second set at 5-2 and also 5-4. Rublev won five straight games to take the second set 7-5. Fucsovics lost his serves in the seventh and ninth games and Rublev won the third set with an ace.

In the fourth set, the two players held serve to six-all and Rublev won the tiebreak by six points to three to end the match that lasted three hours and 52 minutes. Rublev will face Tsitsipas in the first quarterfinals appearance by either player in a Grand Slam.