Stan Wawrinka raced into the quarterfinals by hammering Gilles Simon 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 at Roland Garros on Sunday.
The 12th-seeded Simon was blown away on a windswept court Suzanne Lenglen as Wawrinka, the eighth seed, sprayed the court with winners despite the damp conditions making the clay court slower.
Wawrinka, who spurred Switzerland to Davis Cup glory with victory over France on clay last November, ended the lopsided contest on his first match point when Simon sent a shot long.
Gael Monfils bounced back strongly to take the second set after second seed Roger Federer had won the first when their fourth-round match was suspended at 6-3, 4-6 due to bad light.
Earlier, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat the fourth-seeded Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3 to join Wawrinka in the quarterfinals.
In cold, damp conditions, Berdych looked out of sorts from the start, allowing the 14th-seeded Frenchman to dominate rally after rally with his powerful serve and shot-making. The Czech rallied briefly in the third set as Tsonga’s level dropped, but after a brief scare at the start of the fourth set, Tsonga won five games in a row to move through.
“That’s the best match I have played in some time,” said Tsonga.Tsonga next meets Kei Nishikori, who became the first Japanese man in 82 years to reach the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 win over Teymuraz Gabashvili. Jiro Satoh was the last Japanese man to enjoy such a run in Paris when he went on to the semifinals in 1931 and 1933.
Asked about his thoughts about taking on Tsonga in the last eight, Asia’s top player said he expected it to be a “fun match.”
“We haven’t played for a long time, maybe couple of years,” he said. “But, you know, he was injured and he came back now and he’s coming back very strong. You know, he has a big serve, big forehand. He’s always a dangerous player.”
Seventh-seeded Ana Ivanovic made the quarterfinals for the first time since her 2008 title run, defeating ninth seed Ekaterina Makarova 7-5, 3-6, 6-1
She will next face Elina Svitolina who beat fellow former Roland Garros junior champion Alize Cornet 6-2, 7-6(9) to become the first Ukrainian to make the last eight. Svitolina, seeded 19, is also only the second Ukrainian woman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal after Kateryna Bondarenko made the last eight at the 2009 US Open.
Maria Sharapova’s scheduled last-16 clash against Lucie Safarova was pushed back until Monday. Another fourth round clash between 33-year-old Italian Flavia Pennetta and Garbine Muguruza was also shelved after early showers affected the schedule.
Serena rallies Late on Saturday, Serena Williams battled back from a set down for the second straight match to defeat Victoria Azarenka 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 and reach the last 16.
The 33-year-old American was staring defeat in the face at a set and 4-2 down in the second before finding her range in the nick of time.
She was also a break down early in the deciding set, but found her range and duly won six games in-a-row to clinch the win.
“Today it was not easy, Victoria played very well and I was struggling,” said the two-time champion. “She won the first set and I just said to myself ‘allez, allez Serena, come-on’.”
Azarenka was quickest out of the blocks in a late-starting match, taking the opening two games before Williams levelled at 2-2. Azarenka then won four of the next five games to take the set 6-3.
Williams was struggling with her usually mighty serve and she was broken again in the third game of the second set as Azarenka grew in confidence to take a 3-1 lead.
The American had a break point to get back level at 3-3 but three unforced errors in a row saw her 4-2 down instead.
Two games later she had another shot at taking the Azarenka serve and this time she made no mistake on her second break point with the Belarusian hitting long under pressure.
That proved to be the turning point of the match with Williams clearly in the ascendancy suddenly opening up with all the power she had at her disposal. She levelled the set scores after a disputed line call that had the two players trading barbs and staring daggers at each other over the net.
Williams fell behind 0-2 at the start of the deciding set, but turned on the power as Azarenka wilted to win the last six games of the tie.
Sania & Hingis in quarterfinals Sania Mirza remained the only Indian surviving in this year’s tournament by cruising into the quarterfinals on Sunday. Top-seeded Sania and Hingis scored a 6-1, 6-4 third-round win over Karin Knapp and Roberta Vinci.
Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea, seeded ninth, went down 6-3, 6-7(7), 6-3 to fifth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horea Tecau while the 10th seeds Leander Paes and Daniel Nestor suffered a 6-2, 6-4 to Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini.
