Top Aussie girl Sam Stosur won her fourth round matchup tonight and advances to the French Open quarter-finals. Stosur defeated American teenager Sloane Stephens in a tough straight sets matchup.
Stephens was Stosur’s toughest opponent in the tournament thus far but held on to win 7-5 6-4.
Stosur made some crucial errors in the first set that saw her drop games she was in a position to take, but she was better in the second and got out to a 5-1 start before choking twice while serving for the match.
More good news, Stosur’s next challenge just got a whole lot easier. World No.1 Victoria Azarenka suffered a surprise loss to 15th seed Dominika Cibulkova, 6-2 7-6 (7-4).
The two were destined to meet in the quarter-finals until the plan unraveled. In six career meetings Stosur has never taken a set from the 2012 Australian Open winner, let alone won a match.
Azarenka was clearly frustrated with her performance and was given a warning for racquet abuse twice smashing hers into the clay during the second set.
Stosur is now the most-qualified player in the top half of the ladies singles event, the only woman remaining to have made a Grand Slam final.
In the men’s, Novak Djokovic needed an epic performance to defeat 22nd seed Andreas Seppi. He fell behind after losing the first two sets 4-6 6-7 before winning the final three 6-3 7-5 6-3. Djokovic is attempting to become the first men’s singles player to win four consecutive Grand Slam tournaments.
Roger Federer defeated David Goffin to also advance.
