French Open Results 2013: Day 8 Scores, Highlights and Recap

The competition has gotten tougher in the fourth round at Roland Garros, but the top seeds continued to take care of business on Sunday.

Roger Federer had a very difficult time with 15th-seeded Gilles Simon and was even down two sets to one. Still, he was able to pull out the victory in five sets, something that is rare this early in a Grand Slam for Federer, according to Ben Rothenberger of The New York Times:

It has been nine years since the Swiss player last failed to reach the quarterfinals at a Grand Slam event. 

On the other side of the spectrum, Serena Williams needed just over an hour to dispose of Roberta Vinci, as she continues to dominate the women's side of the bracket.

Of course, the day was not without a few upsets. Angelique Kerber could not stick with Svetlana Kuznetsova, who eliminated the No. 8 seed in the women's draw. On the men's side, No. 32 Tommy Robredo displayed a great comeback effort to defeat No. 11 Nicolas Almagro in five sets after losing the first two.

This was an action-packed day at the French Open, so here is a look back at the most notable results.

Day 8 Results (via RolandGarros.com)

Match	Score
Men's Draw
No. 2 Roger Federer def. No. 15 Gilles Simon	6-1, 4-6, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3
No. 4 David Ferrer def. No. 23 Kevin Anderson	6-3, 6-1, 6-1
No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga def. Viktor Troicki	6-3, 6-3, 6-3
No. 32 Tommy Robredo def. No. 11 Nicolas Almagro	6-7(5), 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4
Women's Draw
No. 1 Serena Williams def. No. 15 Roberta Vinci	6-1, 6-3
No. 5 Sara Errani def. No. 20 Carla Suarez Navarro	5-7, 6-4, 6-3
Svetlana Kuznetsova def. No. 8 Angelique Kerber	6-4, 4-6, 6-3

Roger Federer Survives Against Gilles Simon

At the start of his fourth-round match, Roger Federer looked as good as ever while winning the first set 6-1. He seemed near impossible to beat when he was landing shots like this, courtesy of The Score:

However, a big turning point occurred in the second set when the veteran fell down while chasing a ball, as evidenced by this tweet from Roland Garros:

Gilles Simon took advantage of the opportunity and won the second set 6-4. He then continued this dominance with a 6-2 victory in the third set with Federer simply not looking quite right.

This did not keep the former champ down, though, and Federer gutted his way back to a victory in the fourth set. By this point, even the French crowd was cheering for him, as noted by Rush the Court:

He went on to capture the fifth set 6-3 to win the match and move on to the quarterfinals.

ESPNTennis notes some impressive milestones that Federer accomplished with the victory:

Federer once again proved why he is one of the best ever to play the game.

Serena Williams Looks Unbeatable

The French Open has rarely been great to Serena Williams. She has not won the event since 2002 and has not even reached the semifinals since 2003.

So far, the past has not affected the No. 1 player in the world, as she breezed through yet another match on Day 8.

Williams defeated Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-3 in a match that took only 70 minutes total. The challenger only had one break opportunity and failed to convert it in a losing effort.

Sometimes you simply have to acknowledge an opponent playing incredibly well, like Vinci did during the post-match handshake, as shown in this tweet from Roland Garros:

Then again, this strong play has been going on for a long time. Tennis.com provided some interesting facts about Williams' dominant run:

The 28-match winning streak is the best of her career, and it does not appear it will be broken anytime soon.

Tommy Robredo Continues His Impressive Run

No one should ever want to fall behind two sets to love in a Grand Slam match. The chances of coming back are extremely low, especially against top competition.

That is, unless your name is Tommy Robredo, who has now accomplished this feat three matches in a row. Live Tennis provided a look at how rare this run has been:

In Round 4, the Spanish player was able to pull off the comeback in an epic match against the talented Nicolas Almagro. While the contest only featured one tiebreak, virtually every game went to deuce, and the match lasted just short of four hours.

At the end, Robredo could barely stand and displayed an incredible amount of raw emotion, as illustrated by Joe Fleming of USA Today:

Roland Garros' Twitter account also had a full reaction from the player after the win:

With the loss of unseeded Viktor Troicki, the No. 32 is now the lowest-ranked player in the men's draw. However, he has displayed excellent resolve and should never be counted out at Roland Garros.

More Contenders Emerge

Coming into the tournament, Rafael Nadal was the clear favorite to win it all after taking the title in seven of the last eight years. Among other top contenders were the usual suspects of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

However, while Federer and Nadal have seen some tough tests in the earlier rounds, David Ferrer and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga have cruised through their matches.

Neither has lost a set yet at Roland Garros, and they both continued their great play on Sunday to move on to the quarterfinals.

Ferrer easily disposed of Kevin Anderson while losing only five games total in three sets. Tsonga continued his great serving ability against Viktor Troicki, winning 73 percent of first serves and an incredible 79 percent of second serves.

Both of these players have been fantastic throughout the tournament and now have a good chance of at least reaching the finals at the French Open.

Follow Bleacher Report Featured Columnist Rob Goldberg on Twitter.