Khachanov, Pavlyuchenkova through the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros
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Karen Khachanov showed plenty of resolve on Sunday as he battled past Italian Lorenzo Sonego 1-6, 6-4, 7-6(7-5), 6-1 to reach the last eight of the French Open for the second time.
The Russian 11th seed looked out of sorts in the opening set before finding his range on Court Suzanne Lenglen, using his forehand to devastating effect.
Karen Khachanov after his win over Lorenzo Sonego in round four.Credit: AP
Sonego never recovered from wasting a 4-0 advantage in the third-set tie-breaker, which proved to be the turning point of an entertaining encounter.
Khachanov will now face either two-time Roland Garros champion Novak Djokovic or Peru’s Juan Pablo Varillas.
In the women’s draw, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova dug deep to progress to the French Open quarter-finals for the first time since her runner-up finish two years ago.
The Russian, who was defeated in the 2021 final by Czech Barbora Krejcikova, skipped last year’s edition as well as the second half of the season to nurse a knee problem and came into the match after three-setters in her last two encounters.
She was tested again by 28th seed Elise Mertens, but rallied from a set and a break down to seal a 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 victory in a little more than three hours.
Pavlyuchenkova, who has slipped to world number 333 after being forced to stop playing completely for around five months last year, is the lowest-ranked French Open quarter-finalist in the Open era.
There were dramatic scenes on court 14 as Japan’s Miyu Kato and Indonesia’s Aldila Sutjiadi were disqualified from their women’s doubles third-round match after Kato struck a ball down the court between points and hit a ball girl.
Kato was initially warned by chair umpire Alexandre Juge, but Czech Marie Bouzkova and Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo, who were leading 7-6 (7-1), 1-3 at the time, pointed out to him that the ball girl was crying.
“No, no, let me explain to you. She (Kato) didn’t do it on purpose, she (the ball girl) didn’t get injured,” Juge said.
“She (Kato) didn’t do it on purpose? She’s crying,” Sorribes Tormo said, pointing to the ball girl.
“And she has blood,” Bouzkova added.
After speaking to the girl, the umpire went back up to his chair and announced the end of the match by disqualifying Kato and Sutjiadi.
Reuters
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