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Updates from Monday’s fourth-round matches
Salut à tous et bienvenue à Roland-Garros 2026 – neuvième jour!
And devinez quoi? It’s another banger absolu!
We begin with an intriguing match on Chatrier, Flavio Cobolli beginning to establish himself as a second-week staple. His all-round game, when on, is perfect for the clay on which he was raised, a mix of vicious attack and tenacious defence, and in Zach Svajda, he faces an opponent he knows he should beat, but also one in terrific form.
Opening on Lenglen, meanwhile, we’ll enjoy Anastasia Potapova, perhaps starting to make good on her potential – to get here, she dismissed Coco Gauff, the defending champion – against Anna Kalinskaya, looking to go deep in a slam for the first time. This is the biggest match of both of their lives.
All the more so given waiting for them in the last eight is either Diane Parry or Maja Chwalinska, second on Lenglen and also enjoying their best-ever major performance. And, as we move into the afternoon, Madison Keys – the 2025 Australian Open winner, words it never gets boring to type – takes on Diana Shnaider, with Naomi Osaka or Aryna Sabalenka awaiting the winner.
After which, the men take centre stage, all of them seeking to profit from the opportunity of a lifetime given a draw now missing Novak Djokovic, Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner. Chances are, Matteo Berrettini, Félix Auger-Aliassime and Frances Tiafoe have all spent time processing and reconciling the likelihood that they were unlikely to realise dreams of winning a biggun that, in their youth, seemed not only realistic but likely.
