French Open 2021: Stefanos Tsitsipas, Alexander Zverev & Daniil Medvedev reach fourth round
- Published
Daniil Medvedev (left) and Alexander Zverev sealed their places in the French Open fourth round on Friday
Fifth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas came from a set down to beat John Isner in the French Open third round, while second seed Daniil Medvedev and sixth seed Alexander Zverev also advanced.
Tsitsipas - a semi-finalist in 2020 - struggled against Isner's serve in the opener but the 22-year-old Greek eventually won 5-7 6-3 7-6 (7-3) 6-1.
Russian Medvedev, 25, won 6-4 6-2 6-4 against American Reilly Opelka.
Germany's Zverev, 24, beat Serbia's Laslo Djere 6-2 7-5 6-2.
Isner will play Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta in the fourth round, Medvedev faces Chilean Cristian Garin and Zverev is up against Japan's Kei Nishikori.
Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and 13-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal - who faces Britain's Cameron Norrie - are all in third-round action on Saturday.
Tsitsipas raises level to seal victory
Isner's rapid serving, with multiple aces, helped him through the early stages of the first set against Tsitsipas and the 36-year-old American broke to love to go 6-5 up.
The 31st seed continued in the same vein, hitting a 132mph serve to claim the opening set but as rain fell on Court Philippe Chatrier Tsitsipas mustered several break points in the second and eventually converted one.
The Greek successfully served for the set and looked increasingly energetic as he ground his way to a tie-break victory in the third.
Showing the professionalism that will be essential if he is to reach his first Grand Slam final, Tsitsipas upped the pressure once more to break twice in the fourth set and complete his win.
Stefanos Tsitsipas has played in three Grand Slam semi-finals
Medvedev makes second week for first time
Before this week Medvedev had failed to win a singles match at Roland Garros, falling to first-round exits in each of his previous four visits, but has dropped just one set on his way to the second week.
The 2021 Australian Open runner-up was broken early on by 6ft 11in giant Opelka, but recovered to win the opening set and did not have to face another break point in the match.
With no French players in the third round for the first time in the Open era, Medvedev, who speaks French and lived in the country as a youngster, received generous support from the home crowd.
"I'm playing some great tennis. I want to maintain my level and win more matches," said the Russian, who will avoid Federer, Nadal and Djokovic until the final in the favourable bottom half of the draw.
By contrast to Medvedev's poor past record in Paris, Zverev, the 2020 US Open finalist, has reached the quarter-finals twice at Roland Garros, in 2018 and 2019.
His opponent Djere served for the second set three times at 5-3 before being broken as Zverev won seven games in a row to take the second set and break immediately at the start of the third.
"Obviously this is the main goal of my tennis career, to win Grand Slams, reach the top of the rankings," Zverev said.
"I feel the last year and a half I'm going the right way."
