Day 9 - five to watch on Monday

Svitolina’s run into Paris was not particularly eye-catching (her best result was the fourth round in Rome) but that had its advantages. With the mixed Masters 1000 events now spread over two weeks, any early losses gave Svitolina more time to nip home and enjoy some family time.

As the pressure and the hype increases before the start of a Grand Slam, such moments of peace and quiet can make a world of difference.

It also helps that her husband is also an elite professional tennis player. Gael Monfils knows all about the highs and lows of life on tour and he knows just what to say – or not to say – when his wife comes home from a painful defeat.

“After losses I can be sometimes really moody and really difficult to handle for a couple of days,” she admitted. “So he knows how to treat me and how to comfort me. Also, he's very different. I let him also play video games to release all these negative things that sometimes he has after the losses, and sometimes media also p****s him off a little bit.

"I feel like we are used to it now, and it really helps us because we know how to support each other and we know what we're going through.”

Not that Gael has had to do much comforting in the past nine days: Svitolina has moved serenely through the draw.

Now she faces the No.4 seed and on past form, that is an entirely winnable match. She and Rybakina have played three times before with Svitolina winning twice.

That said, they have not played for three years and a lot has happened in that time: Rybakina has won Wimbledon and reached the Australian Open final while Svitolina has become a mother (although she has barely broken stride since returning from maternity leave).

Rybakina, meanwhile, has been struggling with a range of health issues since the start of the year. She pulled out of Indian Wells with stomach issues, she pulled out of Rome with an unspecified illness and here she has been plagued by allergies and insomnia.

It is not ideal preparation to take on the world No.19 and the Court Philippe-Chatrier crowd (as Gael’s wife, Elina is an adopted Frenchwoman around these parts).

Rybakina has more power than Svitolina but Mrs Monfils has both the heart and the brain to take on anyone in Paris. Just ask her husband.

Four more to watch:

Court Philippe-Chatrier, second match: Aryna Sabalenka vs Emma Navarro

You have to feel for Jason Stacy. He is Sabalenka’s performance coach and since the start of this year’s Australian Open, the world No.2 has autographed his head before every Grand Slam match (he is a follically challenged gentleman). It is part of the pre-match routine and it has become something of a superstition for the whole team.

Sadly for him, there seems to be no end in sight to this ritual: Sabalenka has dropped a mere 13 games on her way to the fourth round. She is on a roll.

Then again, Navarro, a self-confessed late bloomer at the age of 23, upset the Australian Open champion in Indian Wells in March. That was in the fourth round, too. If she can do it again on Monday, poor old Jason’s bald pate will finally get a break.

Court Suzanne-Lenglen, second match: Alex de Minaur vs Daniil Medvedev

You may wish to pack sandwiches and a thermos of tea for this one. There is not a ball that De Minaur will not run down and there is not a rally that Medvedev will give up on. They could be playing for days. Even a straight sets win on the faster hard courts can take a couple of hours; factor in the clay and this promises to be long.

Medvedev leads their career rivalry with six wins to De Minaur’s two. “We both move great,” Medvedev said. “I feel like we both know how to attack well, but at the same time we're not someone who can make one shot that's going to decide the rally, so then the rally goes long and long because we both defend well. It's going to be interesting.”

Definitely bring sandwiches. Lots of sandwiches.

Court Philippe-Chatrier, third match: Novak Djokovic vs Francisco Cerundolo

With respect to Cerundolo, much of Monday's match will be about how well Djokovic has recovered from his 3.06am finish on Sunday morning. Lorenzo Musetti very nearly pulled off the upset of the tournament in the previous round – as Djokovic freely admitted – but somehow the world No.1 managed to hit his reset button (the biggest weapon in his armoury) and raise his game to new heights in the fourth and fifth sets.

That will have given him confidence that he can still rely on his experience of winning 24 major trophies: when he needs to the most, he can still remind himself of how to win the biggest matches on the biggest stages.

Court Suzanne-Lenglen, third match: Mirra Andreeva vs Varvara Gracheva

They grow up fast, these tennis players. Andreeva has only recently turned 17 and yet she is one match away from her first Grand Slam quarter-final. Standing in her way is Gracheva (who at 23 is hardly a veteran) who is also bidding to reach her first quarter-final.

Gracheva has been training in Cannes alongside the likes of Daniil Medvedev and last summer took French citizenship. She will be the crowd favourite (she joined in with a swift chorus of La Marseillaise after her last win) yet Andreeva and her feisty personality never fail to win fans whenever she plays.

They have never met before but today they will play the biggest match of their careers.