French Open 2020: Novak Djokovic & Stefanos Tsitsipas reach Roland Garros quarter-finals
Novak Djokovic reaches the French Open quarter-finals for an 11th successive year, while Stefanos Tsitsipas joins him for the first time.
Novak Djokovic reaches the French Open quarter-finals for an 11th successive year, while Stefanos Tsitsipas joins him for the first time.
Stefanos Tsitsipas continued his strong run of clay form on Monday, beating Grigor Dimitrov 6-3, 7-6(9), 6-2 to reach his first Roland Garros quarter-final.
After falling to Stan Wawrinka in a marathon five-hour, nine-minute battle at this stage last year, Tsitsipas took his second opportunity in Paris with a two-hour, 26-minute victory. The Greek landed 24 winners and saved two set points in the second set tie-break en route to his 10th win in 12 matches this year on clay.
“The tie-break was very tense. The tie-break was where all the money was,” said Tsitsipas on court. “I am glad that I played good tennis and I didn’t panic. I stayed concentrated, stayed low-key and tried to take it point-by-point.
“I think it worked out pretty well at the end. I showed lots of discipline, lots of responsibility. It was a very responsible win in the second set and I am very happy with myself and the attitude that I put out on the court.”
Tsitsipas is building on the form he showed en route to the Hamburg European Open final two weeks ago. After rallying from two sets down in his opening match against Jaume Munar, the World No. 6 has now won three consecutive matches without dropping a set.
“I felt comfortable. I think Grigor can be very unpredictable and he has a great game, so coming into the match you don’t really know what to expect,” said Tsitsipas. “We have a similar style of play, so I knew that if I could be as aggressive as possible, play with my forehand and use my serve to create opportunities, they [would] eventually come.
“There was a very good, high quality of tennis from both of us. I managed to stay concentrated and press on my return games… My aggressiveness from my return games and my focus on every single point, at the end, rewarded me.”
Tsitsipas will meet Andrey Rublev for a place in the semi-finals. The Russian recovered from 6-7(4), 2-5 down to defeat Marton Fucsovics in four sets.
The reigning Nitto ATP Finals champion trails Rublev 0-2 in their ATP Head2Head series. Tsitsipas served for the Hamburg trophy against Rublev just eight days ago, but fell to a 4-6, 6-3, 5-7 defeat.
Dimitrov was attempting to become the 10th active player to reach the quarter-finals at all four Grand Slam events. The Bulgarian did not drop a set en route to the Round of 16, collecting wins against Gregoire Barrere, Andrej Martin and Roberto Carballes Baena.
Under a closed roof on Court Philippe-Chatrier, Dimitrov gifted Tsitsipas the perfect start with a series of errors in his opening service game. The Greek dropped just seven service points (22/29) in the first set and took the opener when Dimitrov failed to control a backhand return.
A tie-break was needed to decide the second set, which had few break opportunities. Tsitsipas gained an early lead as Dimitrov committed errors on his forehand, but he was soon forced to save two set points at 7/8 and 8/9. Tsitsipas saved the first with an attacking crosscourt forehand and reached 9/9 when Dimitrov fired wide with a forehand up the line. On his third set point, Tsitsipas hit a defensive forehand at the laces of his opponent to claim the set.
Tsitsipas carried the momentum into the third set, defending well to extend rallies and gain a 2-0 lead. The Hamburg runner-up finished the match with his third service break, as Dimitrov fired a backhand into the net.
Tennis is not the most popular sport in Hungary, dwarfed by water polo, football and basketball among others.
So why did Marton Fucsovics, the first Hungarian man to reach the Roland Garros fourth round since Balazs Taroczy in 1984, pursue professional tennis rather than one of the team sports popular in his country?
“Maybe because I was very talented and I won a lot of matches, a lot of tournaments,” Fucsovics, who plays 13th seed Andrey Rublev on Monday, told ATPTour.com. “I was always the best in my age in Hungary. Even in Europe, I was winning some tournaments, so I was very successful and I really liked it.”
His parents, Joszef and Edit, are both accountants in the land-locked European country of 10 million people, which shares borders with Austria, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. Fucsovics got involved in tennis by coincidence. One day, his father played with friends at a club near their home in Nyiregyhaza, and five-year-old Marton followed along.
The Hungarian enjoyed hitting the ball. He kept up with the sport, also playing football and basketball until he was 12. Even as a kid, Fucsovics understood that he had a special set of skills on the tennis court.
“When I was young, it seemed so easy to play tennis, to travel, to win the matches,” said Fucsovics, who had no problem ditching football and basketball. “It was easy. I wasn’t hesitating at all. I was successful in tennis, I love to play tennis. It was a quick decision.”
At 15, Fucsovics was encouraged by Gyorgy Joo, whom he says is “like a second father”, to move abroad to pursue better training opportunities. Joo, who is Fucsovics’ manager, thought better coaching and practice partners would benefit him.
“We didn’t have enough tennis courts. We didn’t have hard courts or good coaches in Hungary. That’s why I wanted to go abroad,” Fucsovics said. “He told me if I wanted to be a professional tennis player, I had to go abroad and practise with better players.”
Fucsovics moved to Germany for three years, and his success took off. In July 2010, after winning the Wimbledon boys’ singles title without dropping a set, he became the junior World No. 1.
“My biggest dream was to compete against the superstars: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and all those guys,” Fucsovics said. “That [Wimbledon result] was just a station for me. Of course it was a huge result, but I had different dreams and goals.
“When I grew up, then it became really, really tough.”
At one point early in his professional career, Fucsovics went nearly two months without touching a racquet. Winning suddenly wasn’t as easy. He wanted to re-evaluate what he wanted to accomplish in tennis, with one of those goals being cracking the Top 100 of the FedEx ATP Rankings.
It took until 17 July 2017 for Fucsovics to accomplish that feat. Two weeks later, Federer invited him to Switzerland to practise for a week.
“I had good strokes. I had a good serve. I had the potential to become a Top 100 or a Top 50 player. When I was practising with him, we had good chats,” Fucsovics said. “In these moments I felt that I really wanted to make it.”
Watch Highlights Of Fucsovics’ Maiden ATP Tour Title At 2018 Geneva:
Since 23 October that year, he has not dropped from the elite group. A major reason why is his physique. There are few players on the ATP Tour as strong as Fucsovics, an attribute he takes pride in. Nobody would bat an eye if they saw him on a rugby pitch. When he was 16, he began using the bench press and performing bicep exercises.
“I was always a strong boy. I was working very hard physically, even when I was younger,” Fucsovics said. “I was a skinny boy when I was way younger, but my coaches told me that we had to work on my physique. I really wanted to improve. I was always a kid who wanted to improve and reach higher goals.”
When the Hungarian walks on the court, he believes he is fitter than his opponent. Fucsovics is soft-spoken, but he got excited recalling his first five-set win at a Grand Slam, which came over four hours and 50 minutes at this year’s US Open against Grigor Dimitrov.
“It gives a lot of confidence for me that I have the feeling that these guys really have to beat me and it’s not going to be easy for them,” Fucsovics said. “If they have a good day and everything is working for them, of course they can kill me on the court. But I will be standing there and running around and fighting for every ball.”
At the beginning of this year, Fucsovics believed he needed not just physical strength, but mental fortitude. That finally clicked into place when he earned what was the biggest win of his career against Denis Shapovalov in the first round of the Australian Open. Entering his Roland Garros opener against Daniil Medvedev, the Hungarian was 0-14 against Top 10 opposition.
“Before the match I didn’t have high expectations. I just wanted to enjoy Court Suzanne-Lenglen,” Fucsovics said. “I said to myself, ‘Just go on the court and enjoy the match. No expectations.’ If I lost the match it wouldn’t matter, the next one would come. I felt the ball very well. I was moving good, I was serving well. Everything was perfect.”
Fucsovics beat Medvedev in four sets and he hasn’t looked back. Against Rublev, he will try to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final, more than a decade after becoming junior World No. 1. Either way, World No. 63 Fucsovics, who has reached a career-high No. 31, is now setting his sights high.
“Hopefully I can win this match and finally play a quarter-final in a Grand Slam,” Fucsovics said. “But my dream is to be a Top 10 player one day.”
Whenever he heads back to Hungary, Fucsovics says a majority of people will recognise him wherever he goes. He has come a long way from the boy just tagging along with his father to the tennis club.
“Sometimes I feel the pressure on me from my country or from my family or from my friends. But I’m 28 years old now and I can say I’m very proud of myself. I’m proud of my career,” Fucsovics said. “Of course I don’t want to stop here.”
Karen Khachanov has stunned Novak Djokovic on one of tennis’ biggest stages, upsetting the Serbian in the 2018 Rolex Paris Masters final. But will the big-hitting Russian be able to replicate that feat in his fourth-round match against the World No. 1 on Monday at Roland Garros?
“What happened in the past, it’s already in the books. But every new match is a new challenge, new opportunity,” Khachanov said. “Maybe mentally you know that you beat him in this particular match, [so] for sure it gives you the confidence inside to know that you’ve done it already at least once.
“[The] deeper you go, [the] tougher the opponents you face. This is what it’s all about.”
Djokovic leads their ATP Head2Head series 3-1 and this will be their first clash on clay. The top seed has only lost 15 games through three matches in his pursuit of an 18th Grand Slam title. Khachanov knows that while he has weapons in his game, it is not about landing one knockout blow against the Serbian.
“[You have to] try to be steady, try to maintain the level that we will play during the most time possible. For sure it’s not easy to take the serves here in every match because the conditions are slow,” Khachanov said. “You don’t have to be surprised if you lose a few games even if you can serve hard or not. A lot of balls are coming back, especially in the current situation. I think the most important thing for me is to stay steady, to believe in myself, to believe in the game that I’m playing.”
In the second and third rounds, Djokovic faced first-time opponents. The 2016 Roland Garros champion said a key was to get off to a strong start to apply pressure. Although he has competed against Khachanov, a quick start will still be vital.
“I think if you impose yourself from the very beginning on the court, which I have in those first three matches here, then it makes it hard for them to really believe that they can come back and make a turnaround in the match,” Djokovic said.
The winner of that match will play two-time US Open semi-finalist Pablo Carreno Busta or German Daniel Altmaier. If the qualifier upsets the 17th seed, he will become the first man to reach the last eight at a major on his Grand Slam debut since Alex Radulescu at 1996 Wimbledon. Carreno Busta made the quarter-finals in Paris in 2017.
Daniel Altmaier is in the fourth round of a major for the first time. Photo Credit: Peter Staples/ATP Tour
An interesting first-time meeting will pit two former Nitto ATP Finals champions against each other: fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas and former World No. 3 Grigor Dimitrov.
Tsitsipas has rebounded well from a crushing five-set defeat in the third round of the US Open against Borna Coric. The Greek reached the Hamburg final and after battling from two sets down for the first time in his opener against Jaume Munar, he has rounded into form. Dimitrov has not dropped a set en route to his first appearance in the fourth round at Roland Garros.
Tsitsipas is the more powerful player, while Dimitrov, who is also a shotmaker, uses more angles to manoeuvre his opponents to his liking. Both men have one-handed backhands.
“I don’t know much about him, to be honest, outside the court. I’ve clearly watched him play a lot of matches. He’s been having very, very good results, playing good tennis on any surface,” Dimitrov said. “I’m excited first of all to be in the second week of this tournament. It’s a great feeling. I want to hold onto it and kind of focus on my side of the net.
“I’m very pleased at where my game is right now. My body as well. [We both have] one-handers, of course. We go from there.”
Monday’s other fourth-round clash is between red-hot Russian Andrey Rublev and Hungarian Marton Fucsovics, who is trying to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final. Their only previous tour-level meeting came in a 2017 Davis Cup match, which Fucsovics won in five sets.
“Right now he’s just about to break in the Top 10,” Fucsovics said. “I got more mature [since we played]. I have more experience. I’m fit now, fitter than ever. I’m looking forward to playing a good match against him, trying to finally break through to the quarter-finals.”
Before the tournament began, Rubev had never won a match at Roland Garros. He is trying to reach his third Grand Slam quarter-final (2017 and 2020 US Open).
Mate Pavic and Bruno Soares advanced to the Roland Garros quarter-finals on Sunday, beating Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau 7-5, 1-6, 6-3.
The seventh seeds won 76 per cent of first-serve points (42/55) to advance after one hour and 45 minutes. Pavic and Soares are attempting to capture their second straight Grand Slam team title, following their maiden major championship victory as a pairing at the US Open last month.
The Croatian-Brazilian duo has ended Rojer and Tecau’s Grand Slam hopes in back-to-back major championships. Pavic and Soares also beat Rojer and Tecau in last month’s US Open semi-finals. The reigning US Open champions will next face the other team to have achieved Grand Slam success this year: Australian Open winners Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury.
Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah needed a final-set tie-break to advance to the quarter-finals in Paris. The top seeds came from a set down to beat Jurgen Melzer and Edouard Roger-Vasselin 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-6(3).
Cabal and Farah will meet 2012 Wimbledon champion Frederik Nielsen and Tim Puetz for a place in the semi-finals. Nielsen and Puetz claimed a 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 win against fifth seeds Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek on Court 14.
Nicholas Monroe and Tommy Paul saved one match point to defeat Pablo Cuevas and Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 5-7, 7-6(7). The Americans won three straight points from 6/7 down in the final-set tie-break to advance. Monroe and Paul ended the contest with 113 points, compared to Cuevas and Lopez’s 112. The unseeded pair will next meet US Open finalists Wesley Koolhof and Nikola Mektic. The ninth seeds eliminated 2018 champions Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 7-6(3).
A “sick” Alexander Zverev says he “should not have played” after he was knocked out of the French Open by Jannik Sinner.
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