French Open: Novak Djokovic downs Schwartzman to enter quarterfinals

Defending champion Novak Djokovic has reached his record 16th career Roland Garros quarterfinal and could find a familiar foe across the net next: Rafael Nadal.

The No. 1-ranked Djokovic quickly recovered from only the slightest of blips at the start of the second set Sunday and went on to a 6-1, 6-3, 6-3 victory over 15th-seeded Diego Schwartzman of Argentina at Court Suzanne Lenglen.

Djokovic has won all 12 sets he’s played so far in this year’s tournament and dropped a total of merely 30 games across the four matches.

He fell behind 3-0 in the second set but grabbed seven games in a row to take that set and a 1-0 lead in the third.

Djokovic has made the quarterfinals in Paris 13 years in a row. He won the title in 2016 and last year, part of his collection of 20 Grand Slam trophies. Only one man has won more — Nadal, with 21.

And if 13-time French Open champion Nadal wins his fourth-round match against Felix Auger-Aliassime later Sunday, the two long-time rivals would meet each other in the quarterfinals. That would be the 59th head-to-head matchup between Djokovic and Nadal, more than any other two men in the professional era of tennis.

Nadal heads into his match against Auger-Aliassime with 15 quarterfinal appearances at Paris.

U.S. Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez moved into the quarterfinals at Roland Garros for the first time with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Amanda Anisimova.

The 19-year-old Fernandez had more than twice as many winners, 35, as unforced errors, 17, and continued her run of impressive returning at the tournament. She broke Anisimova six times and now has won 23 of her opponents’ service games through four matches.

Fernandez had never won more than two consecutive main-draw matches on clay until this trip to Paris.

The Canadian made a breakthrough last year at the U.S. Open by making it all the way to the final before losing to Emma Raducanu in a matchup between a pair of unseeded teenagers.

Fernandez, the youngest player to win a WTA title in 2022, is seeded 17th at the French Open and will play Martina Trevisan of Italy next.

The 27th-seeded Anisimova was a semifinalist at Roland Garros in 2019 at age 17. The American eliminated four-time major champion Naomi Osaka in the first round this year.

Martina Trevisan of Italy reached the quarterfinals for the second time in three appearances here.

The 59th-ranked Trevisan grabbed the last four games and beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 7-6 (10), 7-5 on Sunday.

Sasnovich served for the second set at 5-3 but got broken at love there, part of a stretch in which Trevisan collected 13 of 15 points.

Trevisan won her first WTA title at Rabat the week before the French Open began and is now on a nine-match winning streak. Eight of those victories came in straight sets.

She was a qualifier ranked 159th in 2020 when she made a surprising run to the French Open quarterfinals before losing at that stage to eventual champion Iga Swiatek. This time, Trevisan will meet Leylah Fernandez or Amanda Anisimova for a semifinal berth.

Trevisan has lost in the first or second round in six other Grand Slam appearances.

The 47th-ranked Sasnovich beat major champions Angelique Kerber and Emma Raducanu to get to the fourth round in Paris.

Sasnovich has never made it to the quarterfinals in 28 career major tournaments.

Fourth-round action at Roland Garros is underway on the chilliest day of the tournament so far, with the temperature at 55 degrees Fahrenheit (13 Celsius).

Five American women made it to the round of 16 at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament for the first time since 2003.