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French Open 2021: Serena Williams' Shocking Upset Highlights Sunday Results
June 7, 2021
The French Open quarterfinals will be played without two of the tennis world's biggest stars, with Roger Federer and Serena Williams both out of contention.
Federer, who was seeded eighth, was slated to play No. 9 Matteo Berrettini on Monday, but he pulled out of the competition after defeating Dominik Koepfer in the third round Saturday.
The 39-year-old said he wanted to ensure he didn't "push myself too quickly on my road to recovery" after spending more than a year on the sidelines after two knee surgeries.
Williams, on the other hand, appeared on the court Sunday, but the No. 7 seed was defeated in straight sets by No. 21 Elena Rybakina.
Here's a closer look at what went down at Roland Garros on Sunday:
2021 French Open Sunday Scores
Men's Scores
No. 2 Daniil Medvedev def. No. 22 Cristian Garin 6-2, 6-1, 7-5
No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas def. No. 12 Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-2, 7-5
Alejandro Davidovich Fokina def. Federico Delbonis 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
No. 6 Alexander Zverev def. Kei Nishikori 6-4, 6-1, 6-1
Women's Scores
No. 21 Elena Rybakina def. No. 7 Serena Williams 6-3, 7-5
Paula Badosa Gibert def. No. 20 Marketa Vondrousova 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
No. 31 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. No. 15 Victoria Azarenka 5-7, 6-3, 6-2
Tamara Zidansek def. Sorana Cirstea 7-6 (4), 6-1
Full draw available via Roland Garros
In the most shocking victory of the afternoon, Rybakina cruised past Williams in just one hour, 17 minutes. For Williams, the elimination means that she hasn't played in a French Open quarterfinal bout since she lost in the final in 2016.
Rybakina hasn't conceded a match at Roland Garros thus far.
On Sunday, a pair of break-point wins early gave her the advantage through the first set victory, but Williams fought back in the second set. She led 3-2 and 5-4 but couldn't hold on to the lead to force a third set. She finished with 19 unforced errors, while Rybakina won 69 percent of her first serves and finished with five of seven break points.
The 21-year-old Rybakina will advance to face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who engineered another upset victory.
Pavlyuchenkova won a whopping 71 percent of her first serves and eight of 15 break points, winning 17 games to overcome Victoria Azarenka.
Elsewhere, Tamara Zidansek made history at Roland Garros on Sunday, becoming the first woman from Slovenia to be among the last eight standing at a Grand Slam. The 23-year-old had never advanced past the second round of a Grand Slam.
"I'm getting a lot of messages that everyone is watching," Zidansek said, per WTATennis.com. "It means a lot to me that I'm able to get across to the message to young people and everyone in Slovenia that we can do it. We're a small country, we don't have that many players, but we have good players."
She'll get Badosa Gibert in the next round, who battled back after dropping the second set to Marketa Vondrousova. The unseeded Spaniard won 69 percent of first serves and five break points in a tight match that saw neither player win more than three games in a row.
On the men's side of the bracket, the action was largely predictable with the higher-seeded competitors moving on in every match.
In the battle of unseededs, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina played Federico Delbonis to four sets after needing all five in his second- and third-round matches to reach the fourth round. With the win, he reached his first-ever Grand Slam quarterfinal.
He won 70 percent of his first serves with seven break points, though he never quite had a comfortable lead, as he never won more than nine points in a row, matching the total of Delbonis, who had more service point winners.
He'll take on No. 6 Alexander Zverev in the quarterfinal after the German upended Kei Nishikori in fourth-round play Sunday.
Zverev dominated the competition, winning 68 percent of first serves and 68 percent of second serves, claiming eight break points while limiting Nishikori to a maximum of three games won in a row. That, of course, came during the first set, since Nishikori only won one game in the second and third sets.
Zverev went on a seven-game streak during the match, winning 50 receiving points.
Elsewhere, Stefanos Tsitsipas and Daniil Medvedev will battle in the quarterfinals yet again after both won their respective matches. Medvedev, who finished with 14 aces and 46 winners Sunday, holds the 6-1 advantage head-to-head with Tsitsipas and more recently defeated him in straight sets in the Australian Open semifinals.
Tsitsipas upended Pablo Carreno Busta in three sets, though Carreno Busta hung on to force a seven-game victory in the last set. Tsitsipas had five break-point victories in the match.
The rest of the quarterfinal field will be settled Monday.