French Open day nine: Coco Gauff has cake for breakfast, tennis’ baby boom continues
We look back at day nine of the 2023 French Open as Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff set up a rematch of last year’s final at Roland Garros.
The pair both moved through to the quarter-finals, with Gauff beating Anna Karolina Schmiedlova and Swiatek leading 5-1 when Lesia Tsurenko retired through illness.
There will also be a rematch between Holger Rune and Casper Ruud, who engaged in a fiery battle in the last eight a year ago, while Alexander Zverev continued his strong form in the night session with victory over Grigor Dimitrov.
But the sport is also looking forward to some tasty quarter-final clashes in Paris on Tuesday.
Picture of the day
Quote of the day
My agent was like, ‘Why are you eating chocolate cake for breakfast’ and I was like, ‘We’re in Paris, who cares?’ – Coco Gauff
Shot of the day
Holger Rune pulled a rabbit out of a hat while he was up against it during his thrilling clash against Francisco Cerundolo. He eventually came away with a 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7) victory.
Just incredible
Down 6-7 in the 5th set tie-breaker and Holger Rune pulled this out the bag!#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/1IjImjBvMN
— Eurosport (@eurosport) June 5, 2023
Tweet of the day
The tennis baby boom continues as former top-10 player Carla Suarez Navarro announced the birth of twins.
¡Hola a todos! ¡Al fin, Noa y Ona ya están con nosotras!
¡Estamos muy felices de ser familia de 4! ❤️❤️
¡Empezamos una nueva aventura cargada de felicidad y amor! pic.twitter.com/S3cy03qFXz
— Carla Suárez Navarro (@CarlaSuarezNava) June 5, 2023
Stat of the day
Beatriz Haddad Maia became the first Brazilian to reach a quarter-final Grand Slam in 55 years and she did so in style.
3 – Beatriz Haddad Maia has won the third longest Women’s Singles main draw match in the Open Era at the #RolandGarros (3 hours and 51 minutes) – only Buisson v van Lottum in 1995 (4:07) and Reid v Teeguarden in 1972 (3:55) were longer. Battle.@rolandgarros @WTA
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) June 5, 2023
Fallen seeds
Men: Francisco Cerundolo (23), Yoshihito Nishioka (27), Grigor Dimitrov (28)
Women: None
Who’s up next?
Aryna Sabalenka takes on Elina Svitolina in the highest-profile clash between a Belarusian or Russian athlete and a Ukrainian since the war began.
The night session sees the biggest clash of the men’s tournament so far between top seed Carlos Alcaraz and former finalist Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Novak Djokovic takes on Russian 11th seed Karen Khachanov while Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova meets Karolina Muchova in an all-unseeded match.
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