The singles quarterfinals begin on Tuesday in Paris.
All four singles quarterfinals on Day 10 feature top 10 seeds, making for some highly-anticipated encounters. You will be hard-pressed to find a more impressive Order of Play on the main court of a tournament this year.
Two- time and defending Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek takes on reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova. Reigning US Open champ Coco Gauff faces three-time Major finalist Ons Jabeur. Reigning Wimbledon champ Carlos Alcaraz squares off against two-time Major finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas. And reigning Australian Open champ Jannik Sinner plays 2017 ATP Finals Champ Grigor Dimitrov.
Coco Gauff (3) vs. Ons Jabeur (8) – 11:00am on Court Philippe-Chatrier
Gauff has proceeded through the first four rounds of this tournament in Swiatek-esque fashion. Coco has not dropped a set, and dropped just 18 games across eight sets. She is now 29-8 on the year, though her results on clay were unimpressive outside of a semifinal run in Rome. The 20-year-old American is vying to advance to the semifinals of this event for the third consecutive year.
Jabeur arrived in Paris with almost no form, and a record of just 6-9 in 2024. Between early February and early April, she even went on a five-match losing streak. A knee injury has bothered her for some time now, but during this fortnight, she has played her best tennis of the season, highlighted by a strong performance against Leylah Fernandez in the third round. This is a second consecutive French Open quarterfinal for Ons, though she’s yet to advance farther at this tournament.
Gauff leads their head-to-head 4-2 overall, and 2-1 on clay. So Coco is the favorite on paper, but I would not be shocked to see Ons prevail on Tuesday. She has rediscovered her swagger as this fortnight has progressed, and her game is extremely difficult to counteract when she is confident. Plus, Gauff’s forehand and second serve remain vulnerable at times. And during Coco’s previous runs to the semis here, she’s never had to defeat a top 10 player.
Iga Swiatek (1) vs. Marketa Vondrousova (5) – Not Before 12:30pm on Court Philippe-Chatrier
With the exception of her second round tussle with Naomi Osaka, during which Swiatek had to save a match point in a stirring contest, Iga has once against advanced quite comfortably to the Roland Garros quarterfinals. In the last round, she double-bageled Anastasia Potapova, losing just 10 points in the entire match. The World No.1 is now 42-4 in 2024, as she plays to reach her fourth semifinal in Paris.
Vondrousova has not achieved any exceptional results since her surprising title win at Wimbledon last July, and she came into this tournament just 11-8 on the season. But she has taken advantage of an open eighth of the draw, with the average ranking of her opposition being No.116. This is a second French Open quarterfinal for Marketa, after making her Major breakthrough here in 2019, when she went all the way to the final. And it is now her third quarterfinal out of the last four Slams.
Swiatek is 3-0 against Vondrousova, with two straight-set victories in 2023, and a 6-1, 6-2 thumping at this same event in 2020. While the Wimbledon champ is a dangerous and streaky opponent, Iga is a clear favorite on this surface, especially considering the freedom she is playing with after escaping near-defeat during the first week.
Grigor Dimitrov (10) vs. Jannik Sinner (2) – Third on Court Philippe-Chatrier
Despite bringing a hip injury into this event, Sinner has appeared rather unbothered by it, losing only one of 10 sets to this stage. He is a staggering 32-2 this year, and 60-7 since Wimbledon last summer, when he achieved his first Major semifinal. This is a second Roland Garros quarterfinal for Jannik, and while he lost his first four quarterfinals at Majors, he’s now won his last two.
Dimitrov is the lowest seed playing in Tuesday’s singles quarterfinals, and the only player who has never advanced to a Major final. But since this past fall, Grigor has been playing some of the best tennis of his career. He reached the final of Bercy in November, won his first title in over six years to start the season in Brisbane, and then reached two other finals (Marseille and Miami). Now the 33-year-old is into his first quarterfinal at the French Open with the loss of only one set. On Sunday, he downed a completely exacerbated Hubert Hurkacz, who is now 0-6 against Dimitrov, and has lost all seven tiebreaks they’ve contested.
This is a rematch from the championship match in Miami just a few months ago, when Sinner easily won 6-3, 6-1. Overall Jannik has taken three of their four meetings, though their only match on clay went to Grigor, which occurred four years ago in Rome. However, the Italian was ranked just 81st in the world at the time, and was far from the player he is now. Sinner should be favored to achieve his first semifinal at Roland Garros.
Stefanos Tsitsipas (9) vs. Carlos Alcaraz (3) – Not Before 8:15pm on Court Philippe-Chatrier
This should be a tremendous battle on Tuesday night in Paris. Both men have looked sharp during this tournament, and both are excellent clay court players. However, their history has been completely one-sided.
Alcaraz is 5-0 against Tsitsipas, and has dominated this rivalry ever since upsetting the Greek in the third round of the 2021 US Open. That was an epic thriller, which Carlitos claimed in a fifth-set tiebreak, electrifying the New York crowd. And it was the match where Alcaraz really announced himself to the tennis world. Carlitos has dominated Stefanos in their last four meetings, losing only one of 10 sets. Three of those matches were on clay, including a straight-set victory in the same round of this same event a year ago.
Could Alcaraz be vulnerable to an upset on Tuesday? He missed much of the clay court season due to a right arm injury, and is still wearing a sleeve on that arm. By contrast, Tsitsipas earned some strong results on clay this year, winning his third title in Monte Carlo, then reaching another final in Barcelona. But all things considered, I still like Carlitos’ chances of advancing. Overcoming an 0-5 deficit, which includes some significant scar tissue, will be a tough task for Stefanos.
Other Notable Matches on Tuesday:
Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova (5) vs. Ena Shibahara and Xinyu Wang (10) – This is a third round women’s doubles match, and will be Coco’s second match of the day. Gauff and Siniakova are a new partnership for this tournament, but they are two of the best doubles players in the world. And this is just the second event as a team for Shibahara and Xinyu.
Ellen Perez and Matthew Ebden (1) vs. Su-wei Hsieh and Jan Zielinski (7) – This is a mixed doubles quarterfinal. The top-seeded Australians are playing for their first Major in this discipline, though Ebden is a two-time Major champion in men’s doubles. Su-wei and Zielinski won the mixed doubles title at the last Major in Melbourne, and Su-wei is also a seven-time Major champ in women’s doubles.
Tuesday’s full Order of Play is here.
