Naomi Osaka may have had the edge in the fashion contest. In the tennis department, though, top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka was the winner. Sabalenka beat Osaka 7-5, 6-3 on Monday to reach the French Open quarterfinals and move one step closer to finally winning the clay-court Grand Slam, where she lost last year’s final to Coco Gauff.
It was the first women’s night match at Roland Garros in three years and Osaka entered the court wearing a golden bomber jacket over her gold sequin playing dress, trailing a tiered train with puffs of tulle. Sabalenka wore more standard tennis attire: A slightly sheer black flared tennis dress with a red underlayer, plus diamond necklaces.
In the matchup of four-time Grand Slam champions, Sabalenka improved to 3-1 in her career against Osaka, who was playing in the fourth round at Roland Garros for the first time. Sabalenka overpowered Osaka from the baseline, and produced a huge forehand return winner on her first match point that Osaka barely got her racket on.
Tournament organisers had been criticized for not scheduling more women's matches at night, with Roland Garros officials responding that women's best-of-three set matches don't occupy enough time for TV broadcasters. The men play best-of-five set matches. Sabalenka won in 1 hour, 27 minutes.
“The atmosphere and the attention that this match brought (is) going to show them that probably for the future they should consider putting at least sometimes women matches at night,” Sabalenka said.
Sabalenka's quarterfinal opponent will be Diana Shnaider, who beat Madison Keys, the last American woman remaining in contention, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.
Sinner out, but Italians move on
Despite top-ranked Jannik Sinner losing in the second round, Italian fans will have at least two men in the quarterfinals. Tenth-seeded Flavio Cobolli advanced to his second Grand Slam quarterfinal, and his first here, after beating American Zachary Svajda 6-2, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5).
“It's for sure my favorite Grand Slam to play,” Cobolli said after winning on Court Philippe-Chatrier. “We have the best feeling with the surface as Italians.” A little while after his win, Cobolli, a former youth soccer player at Italian club Roma, joined players from the Paris Saint-Germain team as they paraded the Champions League trophy on Court Philippe-Chatrier. PSG beat Arsenal in the final on Saturday.
Cobolli's next faces No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime, who beat Alejandro Tabilo 6-3, 7-5, 6-1 to complete a career set of reaching the last eight at all four majors. The Canadian has never been beyond a Grand Slam semifinal, though.
Also read: Tennis stars Alcaraz, Sabalenka win Laureus awards
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