2024 French Open Day 11: Sabalenka, Rybakina Bid To Reach SF Collision; Zverev v De Minaur

The last day the men and women play together at the French Open will be one match short after Novak Djokovic withdrew with a right knee injury ahead of his quarterfinal with Casper Ruud.

Ruud will now await the winner between Alexander Zverev and Alex de Minaur. The Australian is into his first French Open quarterfinal seeking his first Slam semifinal. Zverev is trying to reach a fourth straight French Open semifinal and he enters off two 5-set matches earlier in the week.

De Minaur is the first Australian man to make the last eight in Paris in 20 years since Lleyton Hewitt.

“It’s great,” de Minaur said. “It’s amazing. It’s a great position to be in. Again, I think it’s not just myself. I think it’s just the whole country is showing what we can do and the strength of the nation is extremely exciting I think for even everyone back at home just to see all the numbers we got in the top 100, and we keep on pushing out there.”

Zverev leads 7-2 and 1-0 on clay. This will be their first meeting in a Slam.

The women’s draw will see the big bashers Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina who will be big favorites to meet in the Thursday semifinals.

Sabalenka, who has made seven straight Slam quarterfinals now, will take on 17-year-old sensation Mirra Andreeva.

“It sounds crazy to me, to be honest, and I’m super happy that I was able to bring this consistency on the Grand Slams,” Sabalenka said of her streak. “That’s really amazing. I just, yeah, it’s motivating me a lot to keep pushing myself a lot and to see where is the limit.”

Sabalenka leads the teen 2-0 winning both pretty easily, both on clay including at Madrid last month. Andreeva says she’ll be ready.

“I will not say my tactics right now,” Andreeva said.

“Well, of course we will add a few adjustments. We will change something, because the way I played last two times didn’t work. So of course me, I don’t have anything in my head, so I hope my coach will help me with it.

“But here, I feel she’s really experienced. She’s a player of another level, so I have to be prepared from the beginning. I hope my coach will help me with that, and, well, we’ll see how it goes.”

Rybakina will take on Jasmine Paolini with the winner advancing to their first French semifinal, and for the Italian she’s in her first Slam quarterfinals.

“I played some big matches last year with few top players, and I think that help me to have more confidence in myself,” Paolini said. “I was, like, okay, I can play with those players. Match by match, at the end, I think now I believe more in myself.

“I step on court and I say, okay, it’s tough, but I have a chance, you know. Before was, like, I cannot win these matches. I have to, I don’t know, do a miracle.”

The two have split four meetings with Rybakina winning a tough 3-setter in Stuttgart in April.

FRENCH OPEN WEDNESDAY QUARTERFINAL SCHEDULE
Court Philippe-CHATRIER – Début à 11h00
Marcel GRANOLLERS (ESP)/ Horacio ZEBALLOS (ARG)[1] contre Tomas MACHAC (CZE) / Zhizhen ZHANG (CHN)

Pas avant 14h15
Jasmine PAOLINI (ITA)[12] contre Elena RYBAKINA (KAZ)[4]
Mirra ANDREEVA (—) contre Aryna SABALENKA (—)[2]

Pas avant 20h15
4 SM Q Alexander ZVEREV (GER)[4] contre Alex DE MINAUR (AUS)[11]

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