French Open Quarter-Finals: We assess the final eight
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There’s no messing around now in Paris, with the French Open roaring into the latter stages.
We have just eight players apiece left in the men’s and women’s events, but how will the remaining rounds shake out?
Men’s Singles
Rafael Nadal is the 1/2 favourite and that shouldn’t surprise anyone given the Spaniard’s displays thus far.
The King of Clay has dropped just 20 games, let alone any sets. Nadal faces compatriot Pablo Carreno Busta in the quarters, before a potential date with Novak Djokovic in the semis.
But that’s to ignore the rapidly improving Dominic Thiem.
The Austrian meets Djoko today in the last eight, and will have learnt plenty from defeat to the great Serbian in Rome a fortnight ago.
The other half of the draw sees Andy Murray take on Kei Nishikori, and Stan Wawrinka face Marin Cilic.
We should see two cracking encounters here, with three of that quartet boasting Slam titles.
One of this four will reach the final, likely versus Nadal.
It could well be Murray, who holds an 8-2 head-to-head record against Nishikori, a 12-3 record over Cilic and defeated Wawrinka in last year’s semi in Paris.
Women’s Singles
While seven of the men’s top eight seeds remain in the competition, the women’s event is the most wide-open Slam in years.
It was always going to be so, with Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova all absent, but few expected it to turn out quite like it has.
It’s the first time since 1977 a women’s quarter-final line-up is without any previous Slam champions.
Just five of the top 27 seeds are left, with the headline tie seeing pre-tourmanent fancy Simona Halep take on the WTA’s form star Elina Svitolina.
This year’s winner may well come directly from that clash. Halep is 5/4 favourite to take the title, with Svitolina next up at 11/2.
Second seed Karolina Pliskova takes on Caroline Garcia, while Caroline Wozniacki faces Jelena Ostapenko, and home favourite Kristina Mladenovic meets Timea Bacsinzsky.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
