Wawrinka, Gasquet, Murray advance to the quarterfinals
Hitting sublime backhands, defending champion Stan Wawrinka surged 7-6 (5), 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-2 into the French Open quarterfinals, so in control against Viktor Troicki yesterday that he amused himself and the crowd by hitting with a ball boy while the Serb took time out for treatment in the third set.
After lending the lucky lad a racket for their impromptu hitabout, the third-seeded Swiss got back to business, securing his win in cold and humid conditions on Court Philippe Chatrier in just under three hours.
Wawrinka needed eight set points to overcome Troicki, seeded No. 22, in the first set. He failed to capitalise on the first four when Troicki was serving at 5-6 and then saw three more go to waste in the tiebreaker before getting the set lead in 49 minutes.
In the second tiebreaker, it was Troicki who needed five set points to break down Wawrinka, who hit an attempted forehand lob long for the Serb to level.
A backhand winner from Wawrinka - one of 14 from him in the match - broke Troicki to love in the fourth game of the third set.
Wawrinka staved off a break point with a sublime cross-court backhand for a 5-1 lead in the fourth set. An ace brought up two match points for Wawrinka and he converted the first when Troicki netted a backhand from the baseline.
Garbine Muguruza also advanced to the quarterfinals for a third straight year. The array of shots and maturity the 22-year-old deployed in an intensely fought 6-3, 6-4 win against 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova strengthened the argument that Muguruza could soon be challenging Serena Williams for the top spot in women’s tennis.
The fourth-seeded Spanish player started at lightning pace, serving an ace with her first and third balls. In the last game, she stayed cool during five match points to finish off the 13th-seeded Russian.
Standing in the way of her second semifinal at a major tournament is Shelby Rogers. The 108th-ranked American who had never made it out of the third round at one of the Grand Slams beat Irina-Camelia Begu 6-3, 6-4. The Romanian, seeded No. 25, is the third seeded player to fall to Shelby in her march to the quarterfinals.
Albert Ramos-Vinolas, a 55thranked Spanish player who had never made it past the second round of 18 previous Grand Slam tournaments, also is on a roll. He ousted Milos Raonic 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 breaking the eighth-seeded Canadian five times and saving six of seven break points - to play Wawrinka in the quarterfinals.
Cool and cloudy weather appeared to take some bite out of Raonic’s serve on the red clay, with new coach John McEnroe among the spectators on Court Suzanne Lenglen before they work together at Wimbledon next month. Raonic, a quarterfinalist at Roland Garros in 2014 and semifinalist at this year’s Australian Open, complained of an aching left hip in his previous match but didn’t appear to have trouble moving against Ramos-Vinolas and later said it wasn’t an issue.
France’s sole survivor at the French Open, Richard Gasquet, has reached the quarterfinals for the first time in 13 attempts.
His opponent, fifth-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan, never looked at home in front of the partisan crowd on Court Philippe Chatrier. Spectators chanted, “Allez Richard!” between points and grew so excitable that Gasquet angrily yelled, “Shut your traps!” when noise during a point distracted him in the final set.
Seeded ninth, Gasquet won the rain-interrupted fourth-round match 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. He lay on his back on the red clay after Nishikori netted a forehand on the last point.
Gasquet will play Andy Murray in his first quarterfinal in Paris.
Murray reached the quarterfinals for the 20th time in his past 21 Grand Slam tournaments, handling the big serve of John Isner and beating the 15th-seeded American 7-6 (9), 6-4, 6-3 at the French Open.
Murray, a two-time major champion who is seeded second in Paris, made it to the quarterfinals at Roland Garros for the sixth time. He has lost in the semifinals the last two years.