The 2020 French Open has been exciting so far, giving us the best of tennis with some of the finest players around the world competing for the prestigious title. This is week 2 and we are already in the quarterfinals. From 128 singles players last week, we are left with 16, 8 on the men’s side and 8 on the women’s. Let us take a look at what has been happening so far.
On the men’s side, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic sailed through to the quarterfinals. This may just look like Nadal’s 20th Grand Slam as the French Open is by far his favourite. He is the defending champion and has won it a record 12 times. The Spaniard defeated Sebastian Korda on Sunday in a game of three sets (6-1 6-1 6-2) to progress into the next round.
Djokovic also won the three sets against Karen Khachanov (6-4 6-3 6-3) to earn a place in the quarterfinals. His win was not without some controversy though as hit a ball that went straight to the face of a line judge. We can remember how a similar event happened in the US Open that led to his disqualification from that event after his racquet hit a judge on her throat. But this time, it was clearly a mistake and he was not penalised for it. Djokovic would face Pablo Carreno Busta in the quarterfinals while Nadal would go against Italian Jannik Sinner.
Other men to qualify to the quarterfinals include US Open winner, Dominic Thiem who would face Diego Schwartzman, while Andrey Rublev gets to play Stefanos Tsitsipas.
The women’s singles has also been pretty interesting too. Serena William withdrew from the event due to an Achilles injury. Williams was on her quest for her 24th Grand Slam before leaving the event on Wednesday. Nadia Podoroska defeated Barbora Krejcikova on Sunday and would now face Elina Svitolina at the quarterfinals. Petra Kvitova and Sofia Kenin also made it to the quarterfinals, as well as Iga Swiatek and Martina Trevisan.
Written by: Leon Osamor
