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Roland Garros Day 10: Schwartzman stops Thiem, Podoroska into semis

  • Matt Trollope

Diego Schwartzman progressed to his first Grand Slam semifinal with a dramatic five-set, five-hour win over Dominic Thiem at the French Open on Tuesday.

Schwartzman’s epic victory on Court Philippe Chatrier sets up a semifinal showdown with Rafael Nadal and came after fellow Argentine Nadia Podoroska became the first qualifier in the tournament’s history to reach the semis by upsetting No.3 seed Elina Svitolina.

Podoroska will next face Polish teenager Iga Swiatek – who ended qualifier Martina Trevisan’s run – while Danielle Collins beat Ons Jabeur in a delayed fourth-round match to reach her first French Open quarterfinal.

Nadal sees off Sinner threat

The 12-time French Open champion initially had his hands full with the Italian teenager, who had arrived in the quarterfinals after upset victories over No.11 seed David Goffin and sixth seed Alexander Zverev.

Sinner troubled Nadal with his power and consistency and broke serve in the 11th game to earn an opportunity to serve for the first set; he even came within two points of taking it. 

But Nadal, as is customary, broke straight back to level at 6-6, dominated the subsequent tiebreak, and despite falling behind 3-1 in the second set, broke straight back again.

The 19-year-old’s resistance crumbled, and the relentless second seed won 11 of the final 13 games to record a 7-6(4) 6-4 6-1 victory.

He is yet to drop a set in five matches in Paris so far, and stands two match wins away from equalling Roger Federer’s tally of 20 career Grand Slam singles titles.

Stat of the day

Nadal further cemented his reputation as a brilliant front-runner at Roland Garros after wresting the first set from Sinner.

The Spaniard has won the first set in 90 of his 100 career French Open matches; in those 90 matches, he has gone on to win in straight sets 79 times.

DRAW: French Open men's singles

On the 11 occasions he was extended further, nine times Nadal wrapped up victory in four sets.

Just twice after winning the first set at Roland Garros has Nadal ever been stretched to five sets – the last time was against Novak Djokovic in the 2013 semifinals, and the only time was against John Isner, in the first round back in 2011.

Nadal has never lost a French Open match after winning the first set.

Schwartzman into first major semi

Schwartzman ended US Open champion Thiem’s 11-match winning streak with a 7-6(1) 5-7 6-7(6) 7-6(5) 6-2 victory in five hours and eight minutes.

In a match of multiple momentum swings, the 12th seed recovered from 2-4 down in the first set, let slip 5-3 leads in both the third and fourth sets, and got on top in the fifth to eventually prevail.

Thiem, who throughout the tournament openly discussed his waning physical and mental energy levels after his Grand Slam breakthrough in New York, was broken at love in the sixth game of the final set, and never recovered.

Schwartzman had lost his past three matches against Thiem and had trailed their head-to-head series 2-6; his victory will see him break into the top 10 for the first time.

Having won nine of his past 10 matches, Schwartzman next meets Nadal, whom he beat two weeks ago en route to the Rome Masters final.

Podoroska stuns Svitolina, Swiatek next

World No.131 Podoroska continued her incredible run, swatting aside Svitolina in straight sets to extend her winning streak to 13 matches – eight of which have now come in Paris.

Using her heavy forehand and clay-court craft to full effect, the 23-year-old Argentine raced through the first set and recovered from a break down in the second to win 6-2 6-4. 

At world No.5, Svitolina was by far the highest-ranked and best-credentialled of the players remaining in her half, yet her struggles at the Grand Slams persist; she is yet to get past the French Open quarterfinals despite three appearances in the last eight.

Later on Tuesady, Swiatek backed up her stunning upset of top seed Simona Halep with a 6-3 6-1 win over Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan.

Swiatek trailed 1-3 but then stormed through eight games in a row to take control of the match, and sealed a place in her first major semifinal after one hour and 18 minutes on Chatrier.

The 19-year-old Swiatek, ranked 53rd, has not dropped a set at Roland Garros in 2020.

Tweets of the day

Argentina has erupted following the quarterfinal victories of Schwartzman and Podoroska, prompting tweets from major-winning compatriots Juan Martin del Potro and Gabriela Sabatini.

Del Potro referred to the duo as “little giants”.

Collins completes quarterfinal line-up

In the first match of the Tuesday schedule on Chatrier, Collins defeated Jabeur in a fourth-round match held over from Monday due to rain.

The American led 6-4 3-0 before Jabeur staged an impressive comeback, but Collins’ relentless aggression and intensity eventually overwhelmed the Tunisian, the 30th seed.

DRAW: French Open women's singles

Collins, an Australian Open semifinalist in 2019, won 6-4 4-6 6-4 to set up a quarterfinal clash with No.4 seed Sofia Kenin, the reigning AO champion. 

Kenin is yet to take a set off Collins in three career meetings.

Quotes of the day

“I just knew that I'm not going to play as perfect as with Simona. On my level, it's impossible to keep that level of consistency. I just stayed, like, really down-to-earth and really positive. I wanted to be aggressive from the beginning so I can lead on court. I did that pretty well.”
- Iga Swiatek

“If I see the (head-to-head) history, I'm 10-1 down. I'm not sure if I'm going to have a lot of confidence (laughter). But, yeah, I know this week that I can beat him. That's important thing. I have two days free so I'm not thinking yet about the semifinal. I'm thinking just about the crazy match I won. I'm very, very happy about the match and nothing else right now.”
- Diego Schwartzman, on facing Rafael Nadal in the French Open semifinals.

“During all this year I've been playing so, so good. I have a lot of confidence. I think it was good to have too many matches in this year. It's helping me a lot.”
- Nadia Podoroska, who improves her win-loss record to 43-6 in season 2020.

“At the end I gave everything what I had out there. It was an amazing match. I think the first in my career over five hours. Diego fully deserves it.”
- Dominic Thiem

“I wish I could handle the match a little bit different. In the end here and there I was … not 100 per cent mentally on it today, and that was really disappointing.”
- Elina Svitolina

“I think that's probably 80 per cent of the success behind winning my matches, honestly. I think I have some good tennis skills, but I think when I have a positive attitude on court and I'm getting fired up and I'm showing positive energy, I think that helps me perform my best.”
- Danielle Collins

Day 11: Ones to watch

Singles quarterfinal action continues on Wednesday in Paris, with seventh seed Petra Kvitova opening the day’s play on Chatrier against Germany’s Laura Siegemund.

Collins returns to the stadium court for a second time in as many days to battle fellow American Kenin, before Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev go head-to-head in a rematch of their recent Hamburg final, won by Rublev.

ORDER OF PLAY: French Open Day 11

Top seed Novak Djokovic ends the session when he plays Pablo Carreno Busta – a rematch of their US Open fourth-round match which ended when Djokovic was stunningly defaulted.

It remains the world No.1’s only loss this year.

Another world No.1, Diede de Groot, is in action on Wednesday as the wheelchair singles events get under way.