Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Karen Khachanov will compete for a place in the 1/2 finals of Roland Garros

In Paris, at the French Open, the first quarter-finalists were determined. Among them were the finalist of this tournament in 2021, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who outplayed the Belgian Elise Mertens in three sets, and Karen Khachanov, who broke the resistance of the Italian Lorenzo Sonego in four games. Between two matches with the participation of compatriots, which took place simultaneously on different courts, Kommersant correspondent Evgeny Fedyakov was torn.

The fourth round game between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Elise Mertens was scheduled by the organizers of Roland Garros in the Sunday schedule first on the center court of Philippe Shatrier as a warm-up before the meetings with Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaras. The audience at eleven in the morning filled the stands lazily, and in vain. Because the Serb and the Spaniard solved their problems very easily, but the tennis players staged a battle, during which at first it was impossible to predict how the matter would end, and the median climax turned out to be the most interesting.

The Belgian, who went on to compete with Pavlyuchenkova, who took a six-month leave from Roland Garros a year ago due to a knee injury and currently occupies only 333rd place in the world classification, has recently been more visible in doubles. Last fall, together with the Russian Veronika Kudermetova, she won the final WTA tournament in Texas, and two weeks ago, with the Australian Storm Hunter, she won the Italian Open in Rome. True, Mertens began as a promising single skater. She has also won the 2018 Australian Open semi-finals, two US Open quarter-finals, and seven WTA titles. Dealing with the current 28th racket of the world is not easy due to its versatility, and Pavlyuchenkova immediately felt it, giving up the first set in 49 minutes. The game was obviously not going well for the Russian, and when in the second game, with a score of 1:3, she got 0:40 on her serve, there was a complete impression that her advancement along the grid would end.

“At that moment, I was more in the future,” Pavlyuchenkova later shared her feelings with the Kommersant correspondent. “However, she continued to fight, caught one or two balls, and then saw that the game could be saved.”

It was a turning point. Having played seven break points in that game, the Russian woman dramatically changed the whole psychological background of the fight. Mertens faltered, and Pavlyuchenkova, sensing this, stepped up and played almost as famously as two years ago, when she reached the final at Roland Garros. Mertens did not help and a long medical time-out, taken after three games of the decisive set. The accented blows of the Russian tennis player, who is accustomed to playing on the finest sensations, over and over again put the Belgian to a standstill. As a result – 3:6, 7:6 (7:3), 6:3. Having spent more than three hours on Philippe Chatrier’s well-known court, Pavlyuchenkova won the third consecutive meeting in which she lost the first set. She also became the lowest-ranked quarter-finalist in the history of Roland Garros and at all Grand Slam tournaments over the past three seasons. It is possible that in a week Pavlyuchenkova will return to the first hundred of the world ranking. True, for this she needs to cope with the Czech Karolina Muchova, who outplayed the Russian Elina Avanesyan in two games.

Meanwhile, Karen Khachanov in the arena Suzanne Lenglen fought with the Italian Lorenzo Sonego. And in the course of the starting segment that the Russian failed, it was impossible not to remember that a week ago there, only at the cost of enormous efforts, losing the first two games, he defeated the Frenchman Constant Lestienne in the starting round. And now the opponent acted cool, and the Russian tennis player started sluggishly. But then Khachanov left behind the second set, and the ending of the third set became decisive, when he first gave the pitch, leading 5:4, and then saved the tie-break, losing 0:4.

Khachanov made it to his second quarter-final at Roland Garros and the third in a row at the majors in 3 hours and 29 minutes, winning 1:6, 6:4, 7:6 (9:7), 6:1.

And this result almost guarantees him a place in the top ten, where Daniil Medvedev and Andrei Rublev have been almost constantly in recent times. Theoretically, Argentinian Francisco Serundolo, Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov and Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka, who are in the lower half of the grid, can theoretically interfere with Khachanov. But for this, each of them needs to take the title in Paris, which is unlikely. That is, on June 12, three Russian players will simultaneously be in the top 10 rating of the Association of Tennis Professionals for the first time. It’s practically a foregone conclusion.

But first, Khachanov will still play at least one match on this Roland Garros – the quarterfinal against Novak Djokovic. The score of personal meetings – 8:1 – makes it clear who is considered the favorite here. “Beating Djokovic is just so hard. Something must be done differently than usual, ”Khachanov said, answering the question of a Kommersant correspondent whether he was ready to surprise the Serb with something.