Felix Auger-Aliassime reaches 4th round of French Open
Denis Shapovalov, Bianca Andreescu both eliminated
Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime won his rain-interrupted match Saturday to earn a fourth-round date with Carlos Alcaraz at the French Open.
The tournament's 21st-seed from Montreal was a 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 winner over No. 15 Ben Shelton of the United States.
Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., was ousted 6-3, 7-6 (0), 4-6, 6-1 by eighth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz of Poland when their third-round match resumed Saturday.
And Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., fell in her third-round women's singles match 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 to No. 12 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy.
Auger-Aliassime was up 5-4 on Friday before rain suspended the match.
He took the initial five games when play resumed Saturday.
Auger-Aliassime, 23, has never reached the French Open quarterfinals.
To do so this year, he'll have to get past two-time major winner and third seed Alcaraz of Spain.
"It's as big of a challenge as it gets," the Canadian said. "I feel like I have more and more belief in my game and what I do. I have all the reasons to believe I can win, but we know the challenges. It's a tough one."
WATCH | Auger-Aliassime beats Shelton at French Open:
Shelton's shoulder pain drained his serve speed Saturday.
"I just feel like a pitcher who's thrown too many pitches, way over his pitch count," he said.
"Felix just played way too well today. Even if I didn't have whatever I had going on, it would have been a tough one to get through, with the way he was playing,"
WATCH | Shapovalov bounced by Hurkacz:
The match shifted from Court 14 on Friday to Court Suzanne Lenglen, one of two arenas at Roland Garros with a retractable roof, allowing them to play even as showers plagued the clay-court tournament for the fifth day in a row.
Ninth-seeded Leylah Fernandez of Montreal and her New Zealand teammate Erin Routliffe were trailing China's Guo Hanyu and Jiang Xinyu 2-1 in the first set of their first-round women's doubles match when it was suspended Saturday.
Shapovalov trailed Hurkacz 6-3, 7-6 (0), 2-1 when their match halted Friday.
WATCH | Andreescu falls to Paolini:
Rybakina, Sabalenka advance
Grand Slam winners Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka reached the fourth round of the French Open in straight sets on Saturday.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion Rybakina, seeded fourth, beat Elise Mertens of Belgium 6-4, 6-2. Two-time Australian Open champion Sabalenka followed her on Court Philippe Chatrier and won 7-5, 6-1 against Paula Badosa.
"It's tough to play your best friend," Sabalenka said.
It certainly was for a while.
After trailing 5-3 in the first set, Sabalenka won eight straight games to take complete control.
"I was just feeling myself and trusting my shots," Sabalenka said.
The former No. 1-ranked Sabalenka's best performance at Roland Garros is reaching the semifinals while Rybakina — the only player from Kazakhstan to win a major title — has one quarterfinal appearance here.
Rybakina dropped her serve in the seventh game of the first set but broke straight back to tie her match at 4-4.
Russian-born Varvara Gracheva of France advanced to the fourth round of a major for the first time after downing Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu 7-5, 6-3.
No. 1 Djokovic advances in 5 sets
Defending champion Novak Djokovic produced a superb comeback to see off Italian 30th seed Lorenzo Musetti 7-5 6-7(6) 2-6 6-3 6-0 and advance to the last 16 after four hours and 29 minutes.
The Serbian world No. 1 claimed his 369th Grand Slam match victory to move level with Roger Federer at the top of the all-time list.
Fourth-seeded Alexander Zverev advanced to the fourth round of the French Open, staging a furious rally to fend off Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands in a five-set marathon.
The German need four hours, 13 minutes to eliminate Griekspoor 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (10-3) on the clay courts at Roland Garros in Paris. And he needed to come back from a fifth-set deficit, down a double break in a match littered with break opportunities.
Griekspoor broke Zverev to open the fifth set and again in the fifth game to take a 4-1 lead. But Zverev evened the set at 4-4, breaking his opponent in Griekspoor's next two service games - aided by three double faults. In the ensuing tiebreaker, Griekspoor failed to record a point on five of his six serves.
The Dutchman, seeded 26th, was looking for his third Top 10 win and his first appearance in the fourth round of a Grand Slam event. He was forced to play defense throughout the match, fighting off 13 of 18 break points.
Also advancing Saturday were fifth-seeded Daniil Medvedev of Russia and Australia's Alex de Minaur, the 11th seed. The two will meet each other in the fourth round.
Medvedev knocked out Czech Tomas Machac 7-6 (4), 7-5, 1-6, 6-4. As for de Minaur, he was a winner over Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
Saturday's play started with the continuation of two matches suspended Friday due to rain.
Later Saturday, defending champion Novak Djokovic faced No. 30 seed Lorenzo Musetti in a rematch from 2021, when Musetti won the first two sets before retiring in the fifth.
With files from Reuters
