Day 11: Three to watch

Swiatek, Ruud get rematches

It’s déjà vu at this year’s Roland-Garros as women’s world No.1 Iga Swiatek and men’s No.4 Casper Ruud face reruns of battles from 12 months ago. Swiatek, trying to win Roland-Garros for the third time, plays Coco Gauff in a repeat of last year’s final while 2022 runner-up Ruud takes on Denmark’s Holger Rune in the men's quarters, just as he did at the same stage a year ago.

Swiatek and Gauff meet for the seventh time with history very much on the side of the Pole, who has won all six of their previous encounters, all in straight sets. Last year’s final was a one-sided affair but Swiatek said she was well aware things could be different this time round.

“Last year, it was a final [and] I think… finals have kind of different rules,” she said.

“Sometimes these matches are a little bit different than the other rounds that we play during the tournament because of the pressure and everything that's going on around. This is a totally different year, totally different tournament. I have to be ready regardless of what happened last year.”

Gauff said she had a feeling she’d play Swiatek again and wanted another crack at the world No.1 in Paris. “I think that I'm up for it,” she said. “I have improved a lot since last year, and she has too.”

Ruud and Rune go toe to toe again, having played out a highly-charged four-set encounter in the last eight last year. That was Rune’s first time in the quarters of a slam.

Having won Munich and finished as runner-up in Monte-Carlo and then beaten Ruud for the first time on the way to the Rome final this year, the 20-year-old is carrying plenty of confidence but needs to recover after being pushed to the limit by Francisco Cerundolo in the fourth round.

“It's tough, I played a lot so I'm obviously feeling it,” he said. “It's the last push of the clay season so I'm just going to push for now everything I can to go as far as I can and then I will rest after.”

Ons Jabeur (TUN x7) v Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA x14)

After the disappointment of losing in the first round 12 months ago, Ons Jabeur is through to the quarter-finals for the first time and will go into her match with Beatriz Haddad Maia as the favourite to advance.

The Tunisian dropped just three games when she beat the Brazilian in their only previous WTA Tour meeting, in Stuttgart in April, and has progressed to this stage at Roland-Garros 2023 for the loss of just one set.

>> INTERVIEW: JABEUR READY TO FIGHT FOR PARIS DREAM

“It was the only Grand Slam missing,” Jabeur said, having now made the last eight at each of the four slams. “Now I'm gonna push more for the next few matches. Hopefully better than a quarter-final final here, looking for a semi-final.”

In contrast, it’s a first Grand Slam quarter-final for Haddad Maia, who will have to recover from playing the longest match of the year, going three hours, 51 minutes in the previous round against Sara Sorribes Tormo.

Haddad Maia is the first Brazilian woman in 55 years to make a Grand Slam quarter-final and she’s not worried about her stamina.

>> SABATINI: HADDAD MAIA DESERVES TO BE HERE

“I had a lot of matches more than three hours in my career also,” she said. “As long as the match goes, I think I'm stronger. I think it's one of my qualities.”

Alexander Zverev (GER x22) v Tomas Martin Etcheverry (ARG)

After three straight matches in the night session, Alexander Zverev will have to readjust to playing in the daytime and to facing an unfamiliar foe when he plays Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina in the quarter-finals.

One year after suffering a painful ankle injury in the semi-final against Rafael Nadal, the German is back in the quarters for the fifth time, while Etcheverry is through to the last eight of a slam for the first time.

World No.49 Etcheverry has come through the section vacated by the early defeat of Daniil Medvedev, all without dropping a set. The runner-up in Santiago and Houston this year, he also reached the final of a Challenger event and having been ranked outside the top 200 as recently as two years ago, he’s riding the crest of a wave.

>> GET TO KNOW TOMAS MARTIN ETCHEVERRY

"Sascha Zverev, I think he has a lot of more experience than me, but I feel really good to play against him," he said. "I am playing incredible tennis this week, and just I have to focus in my game and trying to do the same like I am doing all the day."