Djokovic stages French Open escape act, Medvedev out

PARIS — Novak Djokovic sealed a 15th consecutive French Open quarter-final with a thrilling comeback victory over Argentinian Francisco Cerundolo in the fourth round on Monday, while Daniil Medvedev became the highest seed to crash out at Roland Garros so far.

In the women’s draw, both Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina comfortably powered into the last eight.

A limping Djokovic looked to be heading for a shock defeat when 2-1 down in sets and 4-2 behind in the fourth set, but battled back from the brink to delight the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd by winning 6-1, 5-7, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3 after four hours and 39 minutes.

“Three or four times I was points away from losing this match,” the reigning champion said to the spectators. “I’m not sure how I won this match.”

Djokovic narrowly avoided his earliest exit from the tournament since 2009, teeing up either a rematch of last year’s final against Casper Ruud or a clash with Taylor Fritz.

The 24-time Grand Slam title winner had reached the last 16 by defeating Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in another bruising five-set encounter which concluded at 3:07 am Sunday.

He appeared to be feeling no ill-effects as he dominated the first set, but then needed a medical time-out early in the second after pulling up with an apparent knee injury.

The 37-year-old, eyeing a record 370th Grand Slam match win to break out of a tie with Roger Federer, played on but continued to walk gingerly between points.

Cerundolo grabbed the second set by finally taking a break point after 12 previous misses.

The 23rd seed moved ahead by two sets to one against an increasingly frustrated top seed, who was complaining the court was too slippery, before edging to the cusp of a famous win by forging 4-2 in front in the fourth.

But, seemingly from nowhere, Djokovic dug deep to break and level at 4-4.

He forced a decider on his fourth set point of a dramatic 12th game when a stretching Cerundolo could only find the net.

There appeared to be only one outcome on the cards when the Serbian star took a 2-0 advantage in the fifth, but his opponent rallied to level.

Djokovic was left covered in clay after a nasty tumble, sarcastically saying: “Well done supervisors, ground staff, everyone, the court is not slippery at all.”

But he was not to be denied, grabbing the decisive break with a blistering forehand that clipped the back of the baseline.

A dramatic triumph and yet another quarter-final was secured on his first match point when a Cerundolo backhand was given out by the chair umpire after initially being ruled in.

De Minaur beats Medvedev

Fifth seed Medvedev suffered a four-set loss to Australia’s Alex de Minaur, starting strongly before slipping to a 4-6, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 defeat.

De Minaur will face either Alexander Zverev or Holger Rune, who meet in the night session, in his second Slam quarter-final and first since the 2020 US Open.

Medvedev’s best performance in the French Open remains a quarter-final run in 2021, while he has also lost in the first round in five of his eight appearances.

“Alex played better,” admitted Medvedev, a former US Open champion and six-time Grand Slam finalist.

De Minaur had never got past the second round at the tournament before this year, winning just three of 10 matches.

In the women’s tournament, World No.2 Sabalenka, who was a semifinalist in 2023 and has made at least the last four at her past six Grand Slams, proved far too strong for American 22nd seed Emma Navarro.

The Belarusian raced into the quarters, hammering 36 winners during a 6-2, 6-3 success in only 69 minutes.

“I’m super happy that I was able to bring this consistency on the Grand Slams,” said the two-time Australian Open champion. “That’s really amazing.”

Sabalenka, who lost to Iga Swiatek in the Madrid and Rome Open finals this clay-court season, will play 17-year-old Russian Mirra Andreeva in the last eight.

Andreeva became the youngest French Open women’s quarter-finalist since 2005 with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Russian-born French player Varvara Gracheva.

“When they were screaming ‘Varvara, Varvara, Varvara’, I imagined they were screaming my name and it really helped,” Andreeva said.

Former Wimbledon champion Rybakina, the fourth seed and the only woman to defeat world number one Swiatek on clay this year, saw off experienced Ukrainian 15th seed Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-3, also in just 69 minutes.

She will next face Italian Jasmine Paolini after the 12th seed fought back to defeat Russian Elina Avanesyan 4-6, 6-0, 6-1.