PARIS — Top-ranked Jannik Sinner’s latest dominant performance at the French Open was a 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 17 Andrey Rublev on Monday night to reach the quarterfinals and extend his Grand Slam winning streak to 18 matches.
Sinner is a three-time major champion who won the U.S. Open last September and the Australian Open this January. Now he’ll try to get to the semifinals at Roland-Garros for the second consecutive year and faces 62nd-ranked Alexander Bublik on Wednesday.
Here is just how good Sinner has been in Paris over the past week-plus: He hasn’t lost a set and has dropped a total of 30 games.
Sinner actually began somewhat slowly against Rublev under the lights at Court Philippe-Chatrier. Well, for four points, anyway. Rublev got two break points at 15-40 in the opening game, but Sinner erased those and was on his way.
He only faced one other break point the rest of the match and saved it, too.
Sinner finished the first set with 10 winners to just three unforced errors and kept the pressure on Rublev.
In other men’s action, Novak Djokovic earned his 100th career French Open victory, a mark surpassed among men only by Rafael Nadal, by overwhelming Cam Norrie 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 in the fourth round Monday.
Djokovic hasn’t ceded a set on his way to the quarterfinals this year at Roland-Garros, where he has won three of his 24 Grand Slam titles.
“I feel good. Every day, I have more expectations about my game, (and with) 12 sets played, 12 sets won, everything is solid and positive,” Djokovic said.
The 38-year-old Serbian had a pair of three-match losing streaks this season but seems to be in top form lately, including collecting his 100th title at the Geneva Open the week before play began in Paris. He also beat Norrie in Geneva.
On the women’s side, Coco Gauff earned her fifth consecutive trip to the French Open quarterfinals with a straight-set victory.
The No. 2-seeded Gauff, who won the 2023 U.S. Open and was the runner-up in Paris in 2022, has been engaging in a bit of back-and-forth with another American and Roland-Garros quarterfinalist, Frances Tiafoe, over a first-round equipment blunder in which she forgot to bring her rackets.
Tiafoe teasingly called the 21-year-old Gauff “Mrs. Mature.” Gauff’s retort: “I feel like maybe just playing tennis, it forces you to grow up faster for some people. Maybe not him.”
It was Tiafoe who first made that very mistake back in March, showing up for a match at the tournament in Indian Wells, California, without his rackets. He got plenty of ribbing on social media and from other players — including Gauff.
So when Gauff, a Hyattsville native who trains in College Park, went to Court Philippe-Chatrier for her first-round match last week and opened her bag only to realize there weren’t any rackets inside, the 27-year-old Tiafoe was only too happy to call her out.
“She was full out shaking her whole bag like it was an empty cookie jar on Chatrier. I was like, ‘What are you doing?’ … I’m going to keep ripping her for a long time. I’ve never seen someone (ranked No. 2) in the world have zero things in her bag. That was incredible,” said Tiafoe, who will play in the quarterfinals Tuesday.
Next for Gauff is an all-American matchup in Wednesday’s quarterfinals against No. 7 Madison Keys, who won the Australian Open in January. Keys eliminated yet another American, Hailey Baptiste, 6-3, 7-5.
Monday also saw history made, with Frenchwoman Loïs Boisson, who had never played at the French Open, let alone in the biggest arena at Roland-Garros, battling her way into the quarterfinals.
Boisson, ranked just 361st, threw her head back and roared after beating No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 on Court Philippe-Chatrier in the fourth round Monday.
She is by far the lowest-ranked woman to beat someone ranked in the top five at the French Open in 40 years. The lowest previously in that span was No. 179 Aniko Kapros, who eliminated No. 5 Justine Henin in the first round in 2002.
Boisson also is the lowest-ranked woman to reach the quarterfinals at Roland-Garros since at least 1985.
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