Prossimo articoloCobolli Reaches Quarters: First Slam Quarterfinal On Clay In Paris

Roland Garros - 31/05

Tie-BreakfastMay 31May 31, 20266 min

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Today is Sunday, May 31, in Paris it's 08:30 and it's 18 degrees. Ok, let's go.

On the menu today

🇮🇹 Three Italians in the round of 16: Cobolli clear-cut, Berrettini and Arnaldi go the distance
🇨🇦 Auger-Aliassime and 🇺🇸 Tiafoe come back from two sets down, past midnight
🇺🇸 Gauff out in the third round: defending champion eliminated by Potapova
🇯🇵 Osaka beats Jovic and reaches the round of 16 in Paris for the first time
🇵🇱 Swiatek opens Chatrier, in the evening Fonseca - Ruud for a quarterfinal spot

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY:

🇮🇹 Three Italians In The Round Of 16, Three Different Stories

Flavio Cobolli opened Chatrier by overwhelming Learner Tien 6-2 6-2 6-3 in one hour and forty-six minutes. On Simonne-Mathieu, Matteo Berrettini downed Francisco Comesaña 7-6 5-7 6-7 6-4 7-6 after five hours and thirteen minutes, saving two match points in the decisive super tie-break. In the evening Matteo Arnaldi completed the Italian treble by beating Raphael Collignon in the fifth, also after nearly five hours of play. More than the bare fact of three Azzurri in the round of 16, what stands out is the difference between the three wins: one handled with authority, two pulled out in injury time. In the part of the draw upended by Sinner's exit, it's a sign that the Italian campaign, for now, is holding up.

🇨🇦 Auger-Aliassime And Tiafoe Come Back Past Midnight

Felix Auger-Aliassime, the fourth seed, beat Brandon Nakashima 5-7 6-1 7-6(4) 7-6(1) on Chatrier, climbing back from 1-4 in the third set, while Frances Tiafoe got past Portugal's Jaime Faria 4-6 6-7(2) 7-6(4) 6-1 6-2 on Court 14 in almost four hours, surfacing from two sets down. Both matches ended past Parisian midnight, on a day that put players inside light and attrition conditions this Roland Garros has already accustomed the draw to. Auger-Aliassime, after Sinner's exit, is one of the names around which the top half is being rebuilt, and getting this far without dropping too many sets is news in itself.

🇺🇸 Gauff Out, Sabalenka Moves On Without A Hitch

Coco Gauff, defending champion and fourth seed, was eliminated by Anastasia Potapova 4-6 7-6(1) 6-4 in three sets on Chatrier, while Aryna Sabalenka got past Daria Kasatkina 6-0 7-5 on Lenglen, reaching her hundredth win as world number one. Gauff's exit takes away the tournament's most immediate storyline, the title defense, and completely redraws the top half of the women's draw. For Sabalenka, instead, it's a sign that on the Parisian clay she's finding a different kind of balance than usual, in a tournament that so far has asked little of her to get this far.

🇯🇵 Osaka Breaks Through In Paris For The First Time

Naomi Osaka beat eighteen-year-old Iva Jovic 7-6(5) 6-7(3) 6-4 in nearly three hours, reaching the Roland Garros round of 16 for the first time in her career, in her hundredth match at majors. It's also her first Slam fourth round on a surface other than hard court. The match against Jovic, who had eliminated Navarro in the previous round in Paris, mirrored Osaka's current moment: stretches of impeccable tennis alternating with muddled passages, but managed with a consistency she hadn't found in her hardest years. In the round of 16 she meets Sabalenka, and it's the kind of test that, regardless of the result, will say plenty about where she has actually arrived.

🇫🇷 Parry Floors Anisimova, Surprise On Lenglen

Diane Parry eliminated sixth seed Amanda Anisimova 6-3 4-6 7-6 in front of the home crowd, while Maja Chwalinska beat Maria Sakkari 1-6 6-3 6-2 in another round that slipped away from the seeding hierarchy. The bottom half of the women's draw, already without Muchova from the day before, loses two more seeds and opens up significantly: less expected names are reaching the round of 16, in a women's Roland Garros that, after Gauff's exit, has stopped looking anything like its original forecast.

WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY:

🇵🇱 Swiatek - Kostyuk (WTA, round of 16) - Opens Chatrier at 11:00, a Slavic derby with increasing weight: Swiatek arrives at this match with a flawless run, Kostyuk with the urge to overturn one of the most recurring stories on clay in recent years.
🇺🇦 Svitolina - Bencic (WTA, round of 16) - Following on Chatrier, two players who have built much of their best tennis in Paris. For Svitolina, the seventh seed, it's time to raise the level after rounds handled without drawing too much attention.
🇩🇪 Zverev - De Jong (ATP, round of 16) - Not before 15:30 on Chatrier, Alexander Zverev, second seed, faces the Dutchman Jesper De Jong. With the top half of the draw opened up by Djokovic's exit, every step the German takes carries a different weight.
🇧🇷 Fonseca - Ruud (ATP, round of 16, night session) - Not before 20:15 on Chatrier, the match of the day: the nineteen-year-old who eliminated Djokovic against the Norwegian two-time finalist here, fresh off his comeback against Paul. A clash between someone writing his first great chapter and someone trying not to close his own.
🇪🇸 Jodar - Carreño Busta (ATP, round of 16) - On Lenglen, a Spanish derby that guarantees an Iberian player in the quarterfinals, in a draw where Alcaraz is missing and clay still remains a family affair.
🇨🇿 Mensik - Rublev (ATP, round of 16) - Also on Lenglen, Jakub Mensik, fresh off his comeback against de Minaur, faces Andrey Rublev in a match where the power of both baseline games should leave little room to breathe in the rallies.
🇷🇺 Andreeva - Teichmann (WTA, round of 16) - On Lenglen, the young Russian against the Swiss who has already taken out Muchova. For Andreeva, the eighth seed, it's one of those rounds where the difference is made by staying present, more than by the technical level.