Preview: Wednesday's Roland Garros QFs

Day 11 at Roland Garros promises to be the most appetising yet for men’s tennis fans. Four quarter-finals. One day. Hours of entertainment.

No. 4 Rafael Nadal (ESP) v. No. 20 Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP), 11 a.m. Court Philippe Chatrier

FedEx ATP Head2Head: Nadal leads 3-0

Can anyone stop Rafael Nadal? The fourth seed has looked like clear favourite to take home his 10^th Roland Garros crown and achieve tennis history on Sunday. No man or woman has won a Grand Slam title 10 times since the Open Era began 49 years ago, in April 1968.

This fortnight in Paris, Nadal has yet to drop a set and could hoist the trophy without doing so, as he did in 2008 and 2010. Through his first four contests, the left-hander has lost only 20 games, one game off his best start at Roland Garros, in 2012, when he had lost 19 games through four matches.

He’s been dominant on serve and effective on return, breaking 28 times for an average of seven breaks per match. That’s second only to defending champion Novak Djokovic, but Djokovic has played two more sets, 14, than Nadal’s minimalistic 12.

Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta likely doesn’t care about those numbers, though. He’s already achieved what he had never done before by reaching the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam, so why not continue the career-best run?

The 25 year old from Gijon has never beaten Nadal and has captured only one set against his elder countryman. But the right-hander had also never beaten his fourth-round opponent, fifth seed Milos Raonic. Yet on his seventh match point, Carreno Busta came through to bring on a fourth FedEx ATP Head2Head meeting with Nadal.

“If I think that I don’t have a chance, I will not play. So for sure I think I have a chance,” Carreno Busta said. “It’s really difficult, because Rafa is maybe the best player on this surface in history, and he’s playing really good, but I will try. I’m playing good. I’m [playing] with a lot of confidence.”

2017 Tour-Level Clay-Court Wins

No. 2 Novak Djokovic (SRB) v. No. 6 Dominic Thiem (AUT), 11 a.m. Court Suzanne Lenglen

FedEx ATP Head2Head: Djokovic leads 5-0

Andre Agassi has left Paris but his time as Djokovic’s coach during the first week of Roland Garros appears to have been well spent. Djokovic, fresh off his run to the Rome final last month, returns to the Roland Garros quarter-finals for the eighth consecutive year and the 11^th time overall.

Another victory on Wednesday and Djokovic will reach his 32^nd Grand Slam semi-final, catapulting him to second place on the Open Era list. He’ll also climb to second on the all-time Grand Slam wins list.

Grand Slam semi-final appearances in the Open Era

Against Thiem, the defending champion Djokovic will have a bank of memories to rely on, or, to be precise, a handful. He’s never lost to Thiem, boasting a 5-0 record against the 23-year-old Austrian in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. The 30-year old’s most dominating win against Thiem also happens to be his most recent: a 6-1, 6-0 thrashing two weeks ago in Rome that had Thiem remarking about his dislike for playing Djokovic.

“It’s really tough for me to play [him] because he doesn’t give me any time. I don’t really like to play against him, because he has a game style which doesn’t fit me at all,” Thiem said after the 59-minute match.

Thiem, however, was been in a similar situation last month, when he successfully ended a losing streak against a Top 5 player. Before the quarter-finals of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome, Thiem had fallen to Nadal in back-to-back finals – at the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell and at the Mutua Madrid Open. But when they faced off in the Italian capital, Thiem reversed the streak, upsetting Nadal in straight sets.

The 6’1” Thiem, after reaching the Roland Garros semi-finals last year, will try to match his best Grand Slam performance and become the second Austrian man to reach multiple Grand Slam semi-finals after Thomas Muster.

No. 1 Andy Murray (GBR) v. No. 8 Kei Nishikori (JPN), third on Court Philippe Chatrier

FedEx ATP Head2Head: Murray leads 8-2

For the second time in 10 months, Andy Murray and Kei Nishikori will meet for a spot in a Grand Slam semi-final. Last September, the two battled for nearly four hours at the US Open. Nishikori advanced in New York, breaking Murray at 5-5 in the fifth set to earn only his second win against the Brit. But at the Nitto ATP Finals in London two months later, it was Murray who withstood top-level tennis from Nishikori, coming back from a set down to beat the Japanese during group play.

Murray, who’s trying to reach the Roland Garros semi-finals for the fourth consecutive year, should feel plenty confident when the two meet for the 11^th time. At Roland Garros, the Scot has strung together four consecutive wins for the first time since March, when he won the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships title.

The 30-year-old Murray has also seemingly solved his clay-court woes. In one week at Roland Garros, Murray has doubled his clay-court win total this season. He entered the fortnight with a 4-4 record on the red dirt.

Nishikori, following an injury-plagued clay-court beginning, will try to recreate his aggressive US Open play and advance to the Roland Garros semi-finals for the first time. He would be only the second Japanese man to make the semi-finals in Paris (also Jiro Satoh, 1933). Nishikori also reached the quarter-finals in 2015 before falling to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in five sets.

Day 11: Murray & Wawrinka could meet in the SFs again – but Nishikori & Cilic are formidable obstacles. Read: https://t.co/GHzWRNqRD1 #RG17 pic.twitter.com/TbtJYTMNNv

— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 6, 2017

No. 3 Stan Wawrinka (SUI) v. No. 7 Marin Cilic (CRO), third on Court Suzanne Lenglen

FedEx ATP Head2Head: Wawrinka leads 11-2

The last time Marin Cilic beat Stan Wawrinka, neither of the players had won a Grand Slam or an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 title. It was 2010 on hard courts in Melbourne. The good news for Cilic: the win came at a Grand Slam. The bad news for Cilic: He hasn’t been able to beat Wawrinka in any of their past seven FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings.

The 28-year-old Croatian will try to end the seven-match losing streak when he and Wawrinka play for the 14^th time. Cilic will also try to reach his first Roland Garros semi-final. The right-hander is making his debut appearance in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros.

But Wawrinka has not played in a very welcoming way thus far in Paris. The right-hander answered everything Gael Monfils tossed at him during their quarter-final. Through his first four matches, Wawrinka has dropped only 47 games, the fewest games he’s lost en route to a Grand Slam quarter-final since the 2015 Roland Garros, when Wawrinka won the title.

Cilic should have at least one advantage, though: He should be fresher. Cilic has spent less than six hours on court during his first four matches, compared to Wawrinka, who has clocked more than nine hours of court time.

Go inside the tournament at RolandGarros.com.