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That was Sabalenka’s toughest test yet – and she passed it in style. She was more consistent and patient than Zheng, who made twice as many unforced errors, and then showed breathtaking attack in the final five points to settle matters. It’ll be Iga Swiatek or Elina Svitolina in the semi-finals, and I reckon she could still find another level too if she needed to.
“That was a true battle,” says a smiling Sabalenka. “Honestly I have no idea how I was able to break her back in that first set. I didn’t start well and I’m really glad I found my rhythm.”
Marion Bartoli then asks her about losing to Zheng a few weeks ago in Rome. “Last tournament I was pretty exhausted. I was actually glad I lost that match because I needed a break before Roland Garros. Today I was more fresh and ready to battle and fight. I’m really glad I have another opportunity and another semi-final. I’m ready to go out and compete for every point.”
Sabalenka beats Zheng 7-6, 6-3
Sabalenka, perhaps pushing too much to get the job done, allows Zheng to advance to 40-0, before smoking a backhand return winner down the line. Another backhand winner, this time cross-court, and Sabalenka is surging back at 30-40 and then deuce. The world No 1 looks in the mood to get this finished. And does so with a winning volley and an errant drop shot from Zheng! The world No 1, Australian Open and US Open champ is through to the semi-finals for the second time after a tight, two-set battle. She still hasn’t dropped a set.
Second set: Sabalenka 7-6, 5-3 Zheng* (*denotes next server)
“It’s a two games a set advantage if you know how to play the wind,” says Evert as Sabalenka’s hopes of wrapping up the game are blown off-course when serving at 40-30. “You can’t get set with your feet too soon.” From deuce, Sabalenka regroups, and takes the next two points. Zheng must hold serve to inconvenience Sabalenka any longer.
Sabalenka breaks: Sabalenka* 7-6, 4-3 Zheng (*denotes next server)
But Zheng is so hot and cold. She’s capable of blistering winners but also moments of indecision and doubt. She quickly drops 0-30 down and hands Sabalenka three break points with a double fault, her fifth of the match. And a wild, wayward shot concedes the game. It’s a third consecutive break; this second set is proving as changeable as the blustery Parisian wind.
Zheng breaks back: Sabalenka 7-6, 3-3 Zheng* (*denotes next server)
Mon dieu! A backhand return to take the breath away from Zheng, quite possibly the shot of the match, and it’s 15-40, two break-back points for the eighth seed. Even Sabalenka is applauding. But Sabalenka is furious when her volley is called out and she immediately concedes the break.
Sabalenka breaks: Sabalenka* 7-6, 3-2 Zheng (*denotes next server)
With the wind really whipping around now, here’s the first break point of the set at 30-40 on Zheng’s serve. Zheng serves to Sabalenka’s backhand … and after a few more strikes, thwacks it back to Saba’s backhand, who slides and spins to retrieve the ball, but she can’t sprint to the overhead that is sent to her forehand. Deuce. Advantage Sabalenka, a second break point. And she tightens her grip on the match with a clean winner off the return!
Tomorrow’s order of play is out:
Madison Keys (7) v Coco Gauff (2)
Mirra Andreeva (6) v Lois Boisson
Jannik Sinner (1) v Alexander Bublik
Night session: Alexander Zverev (3) v Novak Djokovic (6)
Second set: Sabalenka 7-6, 2-2 Zheng* (*denotes next server)
Sabalenka’s feet stop moving on the first point; it’s as though they’ve been set into the clay. She’s stalled further at 0-30, but shows great acceleration with a backhand winner for 15-30. B2B aces from 30-all and that’s the game.
Second set: Sabalenka* 7-6, 1-2 Zheng (*denotes next server)
Back on Chatrier, two holds open the second set. A big serve out wide then gets Zheng out of trouble at 30-all. Zheng serves to the same spot on game point and Sabalenka’s backhand return bashes the net.
Elsewhere: Britain’s Henry Patten and Finland’s Harri Heliovaara, the Wimbledon and Australian Open champions in the men’s doubles and big favourites of this blog, are out in the quarter-finals, beaten 6-3, 6-4 by the American pair Evan King and Christian Harrison. But another favourite of mine and Daniel’s, Jasmine Paolini (who doesn’t love her? ), is into the women’s semi-finals with her fellow Italian Sara Errani, after defeating Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-3.
Sabalenka wins the first-set tie-break 7-3
Apparently the shot that Zheng called out in the previous game, and the umpire called in to give Sabalenka set point, was actually 7mm out according to HawkEye. But the technology isn’t officially used by the umpires at Roland Garros. So it seems fair that Zheng has taken this set to a breaker. But she probably isn’t long for in it, because an ace from Sabalenka serves up three set points at 6-3. A drop shot from Sabalenka … Zheng zips forward, but hits long! An absorbing first set goes the top seed’s way.
A rejuvenated Zheng, back from the brink, wins her fourth point on the spin and the first of the tie-break. And it’s on Sabalenka’s serve, so she has the mini break. But given the amount of points won by the returner during this match, I doubt that will prove decisive. And it quickly evaporates on the third point, before Sabalenka strikes on Zheng’s serve. It’s now four points in a row for Sabalenka, who leads 4-2 as they change ends …
First set: Sabalenka 6-6 Zheng (*denotes next server)
A clutch point at 30-all. Will it be set point Sabalenka or game point Zheng, to take this to a tie-break? Zheng stops the point when she thinks Sabalenka’s shot has landed just beyond the baseline – what a time to stop! – but the umpire scurries down from her chair and says it landed in! So it’s set point Sabalenka. A rally of many backhands and the odd forehand, and Zheng, seemingly down and out, goes for broke with a backhand down the line … and it lands! Wow. Deuce. Advantage Zheng. Game Zheng.
First set: Sabalenka 6-5 Zheng* (*denotes next server)
When Zheng is feeling the pressure, she double faults (as most of us would do, to be fair). When Sabalenka enters the big moments, she comes out hitting even harder. Which is what she does here, by bossing a hold to 15. The world No 1 has got herself at the very least a tie-break in this set.
First set: Sabalenka* 5-5 Zheng (*denotes next server)
Zheng’s shot clips the tape at 30-0 and flies over … Sabalenka reacts quickly with the drop shot, which Zheng doesn’t anticipate at all. 30-15. And then another double, 30-all. To be fair to Zheng, it’s pretty windy, and that may be affecting her ball toss, but this is more to do with nerves than the elements. From deuce, Zheng finds a superb angle for a breathtaking winner, but it’s so hit and miss from the Olympic champion right now; the good is punctuated by the very bad. Eventually she atones for her doubles with an ace to take the game.
First set: Sabalenka 5-4 Zheng* (*denotes next server)
At 30-all, Sabalenka throws the whole kitchen sink at Zheng on the first serve but it’s well wide. She lands the second and goes on to win the point. 40-30. Jeu Sabalenka, when Zheng hits her backhand return into the net. For the first time since the opening game, Sabalenka is in the lead. Will she now relinquish it? She’s such a formidable frontrunner after all.
Sabalenka breaks back: Sabalenka* 4-4 Zheng (*denotes next server)
Evert says Sabalenka has made much progress in being better able to control her emotions and not getting so down on herself when she’s behind. And even here, with Zheng serving at 30-15, Sabalenka isn’t chuntering or cursing. It’s Zheng who appears to be struggling emotionally when she hits her second double of the match for 30-all. And a third for break-back point! And a roar and requisite fist pump from Sabalenka as she punishes Zheng’s back-to-back doubles by smacking away a backhand winner!
First set: Sabalenka 3-4 Zheng* (*denotes next server)
Last year at the French Open Sabalenka had her equivalent of Tottenham’s lasagne moment, losing in the quarter-finals to Mirra Andreeva after being laid low by a stomach upset. “I’m definitely not going to go for the same meal I had before that quarter-finals match,” Sabalenka said before this. “The lesson is learned.” She must find it hard to stomach Zheng’s winner for 30-all, though, when Zheng nails a forehand winner down the line with pinpoint precision. But Sabalenka steadies herself and holds from there.
First set: Sabalenka* 2-4 Zheng (*denotes next server)
Zheng looks a little wobbly in the early exchanges of this game, and throws in a double. But then a couple of great serves get her to 40-30, and she makes Sabalenka pay for a weak return with a drilled backhand down the line. She then complains to the umpire about spectators moving around during points; many are still to find their seats with the stadium not yet even half full.
First set: Sabalenka 2-3 Zheng* (*denotes next server)
Sabalenka stems the flow with a love hold. And there’ll be more questions about Nick Kyrgios’s future after news of his withdrawal from Wimbledon. The 2022 runner-up has said on Instagram that he’s hit a “small setback” on his latest return from injury – but it means he remains with only one grand slam appearance to his name since 2022.
First set: Sabalenka* 1-3 Zheng (*denotes next server)
Much credit to Zheng for the way she’s started this match. Both are excellent ball strikers, though Sabalenka usually has a touch more power and panache, but the fairly slow conditions in Paris this year – and as I type that the sun flickers in and out – have neutralised that a little, along with her serve. Zheng consolidates the break by holding to 15, the highlight the final point, when she’s drawn forward by a drop shot and wins the exchange on her second volley.
Zheng breaks: Sabalenka 1-2 Zheng* (*denotes next server)
A lovely touch drop volley from Zheng and she’s got a sniff at 0-30 on Sabalenka’s serve. “It’s a good tactic on the slow clay,” says Chris Evert on the commentary. I could listen to her all day. And there’s an “ooooh” from Chrissie when Zheng’s forehand smacks the sideline for a winner! 15-40, two break points. Zheng unwinds with an inside-out forehand … and then comes forward a few steps to wallop another inside-outer and there’s the break!
First set: Sabalenka* 1-1 Zheng (*denotes next server)
A commanding opening service game for Zheng. 15-0, 30-0, 40-0 … and it really should be game, but her shot deep to Sabalenka’s right wing is called out. Zheng constructs the next point well, moving Sabalenka around before coming forward … but the Chinese world No 7 nets. The longest rally of the match so far plays out, 16 shots, and it’s Zheng who is victorious. They’re both on the board.
First set: Sabalenka 1-0 Zheng* (*denotes next server)
Sabalenka, serving, wins the opening point. Not that I saw it because I was busy laughing at Rafa’s birthday video. Has there ever been a tennis player who was such a warrior on the court but so unassuming off it? Anyway, 15-0 on Sabalenka’s serve progresses to 30-all. And then 40-30. Zheng, with her right arm heavily strapped, gets a backhand return in, but it doesn’t have too much power and it gives Sabalenka the initiative in the point, and the Belarusian biffs away a winner.
Here Sabalenka and Zheng come, on a sunny and warm-ish day in Paris. It’s the world No 1, top seed and reigning Australian Open and US Open champ against the last woman to win at Roland Garros – after Zheng’s Olympic gold medal last summer. Sabalenka leads the head-to-head 6-1 but (and it’s a reasonably big but) Zheng did get the better of the Belarusian on the clay in Rome in straight sets last month.
HB Rafa!
Some more catching-up on yesterday:
Jack Draper will, of course, be hurting after his exit yesterday, but sometimes you simply have to say too good to your opponent – Alexander Bublik was inspired and played probably the match of his life. This has still been a clay-court season of real progress for Draper, reaching the fourth round for the first time, having never won a match at Roland Garros previously, as well as getting to the final of the Madrid Open and moving up to No 5 in the world. He can now turn his focus to grass, a surface that has brought him more success than clay so far in his career, having won his first ATP title, at the Stuttgart Open, last year. He’ll very much be in the mix at Wimbledon if he can handle the expectation.
Today’s order of play
Philippe Chatrier (11am start/10am BST)
(1) Aryna Sabalenka (Blr) v (8) Zheng Qinwen (Chn)
(13) Elina Svitolina (Ukr) v (5) Iga Swiatek (Pol)
(8) Lorenzo Musetti (Ita) v (15) Frances Tiafoe (US)
Night match: (12) Tommy Paul (US) v (2) Carlos Alcaraz (Spa)
Suzanne Lenglen (11am/10am BST)
(6) Veronika Kudermetova (Rus) & Elise Mertens (Bel) v (2) Sara Errani (Ita) & Jasmine Paolini (Ita)
Olga Danilovic (Ser) & Anastasia Potapova (Rus) v (4) Mirra Andreeva (Rus) & Diana Shnaider (Rus)
(1) Lyudmyla Kichenok (Ukr) & Mate Pavic (Cro) v Desirae Krawczyk (US) & Neal Skupski (GB)
Simonne Mathieu (11am/10am BST)
(9) Christian Harrison (US) & Evan King (US) v (2) Harri Heliovaara (Fin) & Henry Patten (GB)
(8) Joe Salisbury (GB) & Neal Skupski (GB) v (15) Matthew Ebden (Aus) & John Peers (Aus)
(4) Taylor Townsend (US) & Evan King (US) v Laura Siegemund (Ger) & Edouard Roger-Vasselin (Fra)
Preamble
Bonjour et bienvenue! After a fourth round featuring surging comebacks, a French revolution from a wildcard ranked 361 in the world, Jannik Sinner in continued cyborg mode and a total wipeout for the Brits, it’s time for the quarter-finals to begin.
The day session features no less than a four-times French Open champion, a world No 1, an Olympic gold medallist, a mother and honorary Frenchwoman playing some of the best tennis of her career, a stylish Italian who’s a new player on the block in the top 10 and a rejuvenated American who’s broken new ground on clay this fortnight. Oui, it’s Aryna Sabalenka v Zheng Qinwen, Iga Swiatek v Elina Svitolina and Lorenzo Musetti v Frances Tiafoe.
All three matches promise much: Musetti and Tiafoe for their charisma, Sabalenka and Zheng for their clinical ball striking and Swiatek and Svitolina for, well, everything if their quarter-final comes anywhere close to matching the drama of their utterly absorbing fourth-round wins over Elena Rybakina and Jasmine Paolini respectively.
Play begins at: 11am Paris time/10am BST. Don’t go anywhere!
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