France's Pierre-Hugues Herbert and Nicolas Mahut claimed the last spot in the Roland Garros semi-final line-up on Wednesday, defeating South American duo Maximo Gonzalez and Nicolas Jarry 6-4, 7-6(8). Herbert and Mahut won 75 per cent of first-serve points and saved four set points at 5-6 down in the second set before securing victory in one hour, 54 minutes. The sixth seeds, who won their 11th team title at the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament in February, will face Mutua Madrid Open champions Nikola Mektic and Alexander Peya in the last four, as they aim to move one step closer to becoming the third all-French team in the Open Era to lift the Roland Garros title. On the other side...
Juan Martin del Potro and Marin Cilic are even at 6-6, 5/5 in the first set as rain has postponed their Roland Garros quarter-final until Thursday. Cilic did well to avoid danger while serving at 5-5, 0/30, when rain first suspended their match. The Croatian recovered, saving three break points to hold for the sixth straight time. The two are meeting for the 13th time in their FedEx ATP Head2Head series. Del Potro leads 10-2, including all four matchups on clay and three of four at Grand Slams. Del Potro won their 2012 Roland Garros third-round match in straight sets. [ALSO LIKE] Three years earlier, the 6'6” Argentine made his first Grand Slam semi-final at Roland Garros. He's looking to...
Rafael Nadal used a 40-minute rain delay to regroup and returned with greater self-belief to turn the tables on Diego Schwartzman in their Roland Garros quarter-final on Wednesday. Schwartzman deservedly led by a set and 3-2, but upon the resumption of play 10-time champion Nadal won three consecutive games for a 5-3 advantage in the second set, after a 20-minute passage of play between rain delays. Play was officially cancelled for the day at 7:30 p.m. local time. Schwartzman, who has never beaten Nadal in five previous FedEx ATP Head2Head meetings, won 70 per cent of his first-service points in the opening set, striking 20 winners to Nadal’s four. He took a 3-2 lead in the second set when they...
In January, Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic clinched their first Grand Slam title as a team at the Australian Open, defeating Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah in the championship match. Just over four months later, the two teams met again in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros. Once again, Marach and Pavic emerged victorious. The ATP Doubles Race To London leaders recovered from a set down to beat the Colombian fifth seeds 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in two hours and 12 minutes. Marach and Pavic, bidding for their fifth tour-level title this season, won 73 per cent of first-serve points and converted two of nine break point opportunities. The Austrian-Croatian tandem are currently riding an eight-match win streak, having lifted the...
Dominic Thiem is inching closer to peak form in Paris, where he reached the semi-finals for the third consecutive year in five appearances at Roland Garros. The seventh-seeded Austrian served intelligently and controlled his single-handed backhand to draw errors from Alexander Zverev, who appeared to be hindered by a left leg complaint midway through the second set, in a 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 quarter-final victory on Philippe-Chatrier Court. Thiem, who has won 25 of his 30 clay-court matches this year, avenged his recent Mutua Madrid Open final loss to Zverev in one hour and 50 minutes. He now leads Zverev 5-2 in their FedEx Head2Head series, including a 4-1 mark in red dirt matches. “It’s never easy if your opponent obviously...
