French Open 2016: Latest Predictions for Men and Women's Brackets
Weather continues to wreak havoc on the schedule at Roland Garros, as Tuesday featured more rain delays and matches pushed back.
The 2016 French Open has been an unusual tournament thus far. In addition to the weather delays and postponements, injuries have played a role with stars like Rafael Nadal and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga forced to retire.
Things have opened up on the men's side without Nadal and Tsonga, though weather delays may cause some additional rust for top stars and give underrated challengers additional chances to recover from previous matches.
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Here's what to expect from the men's and women's brackets after the constant stream of weather delays at the French Open.
| Men's Singles Round 4 | No. 1 Novak Djokovic vs. No. 14 Roberto Bautista Agut (Djokovic leads 3-6, 6-4, 4-1) |
| Women's Singles Round 4 | No. 1 Serena Williams vs. No. 18 Elina Svitolina |
| Men's Singles Quarterfinals | No. 2 Andy Murray vs. No. 9 Richard Gasquet |
| Women's Singles Quarterfinals | No. 21 Samantha Stosur vs. Tsvetana Pironkova |
| Women's Singles Round 4 | No. 8 Timea Bacsinszky vs. No. 9 Venus Williams |
| Men's Singles Round 4 | No. 7 Tomas Berdych vs. No. 11 David Ferrer (Ferrer leads 2-1) |
| Men's Singles Quarterfinals | No. 3 Stan Wawrinka vs. Albert Ramos-Vinolas |
| Women's Singles Quarterfinals | No. 4 Garbine Muguruza vs. Shelby Rogers |
| Women's Singles | No. 15 Madison Keys vs. Kiki Bertens |
| Men's Singles | No. 12 David Goffin vs. Ernests Gulbis (Gulbis leads 3-0) |
| Women's Singles | No. 12 Carla Suarez Navarro vs. Yulia Putintseva |
| Men's Singles | No. 13 Dominic Thiem vs. Marcel Granollers (Tied 6-2, 6-7) |
Men's Bracket
Top seed Novak Djokovic ended Tuesday tied with Roberto Bautista Agut at one set apiece, though Djoker was finding his groove in the third set with a 4-1 advantage before play was halted.
Christopher Clarey of the New York Times did jokingly point out that Djokovic may have been having some doubts early in the match with Agut given his history in this tournament:
For all the superhuman things Djokovic has done throughout his career, the clay at Roland Garros has proven to be his kryptonite. It's the one grand slam tournament he's never won, despite reaching the finals each of the previous two years.
Stan Wawrinka, who won the French Open last year by defeating Djokovic, has been helped by the rain delays. He battled early against Viktor Troicki in the fourth round before pulling away in the final two sets.
Despite needing four sets to beat Troicki on Sunday, Wawrinka did sound confident about where he was at heading into the quarterfinals against Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
"Although the match was rather long, I know that I didn't expend any intellectual energy that much, because I was very serene. I was at peace with myself," Wawrinka said, per ATPWorldTour.com. "Being in the quarter-finals again is great. Of course I don't want to stop there, but I also want to enjoy what's happening."
The key showdown buiilding for the semifinals is Wawrinka against Andy Murray, who has the most difficult quarterfinal test of the top three seeds with a matchup against No. 9 Richard Gasquet.
Murray has built momentum with consecutive wins in straight sets after back-to-back five-set marathons to start the French Open. Gasquet has only played one set over the minimum, needing four sets to knock off fifth-ranked Kei Nishikori.
If there's an upset to happen among the three French Open favorites on the men's side, it would be Gasquet knocking off Murray. Gasquet has already set a new personal benchmark by reaching the quarterfinals.
Murray is no stranger to deep runs at Roland Garros, advancing to the semifinals each of the last two years.
Djokovic is still the favorite to win the French Open because Murray and Wawrinka, his two biggest opponents, will have to go through each other in the semifinals to set up a match with him for the championship.
Women's Bracket
Serena Williams' path to a fourth career French Open title has been made much easier with No. 2 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 3 seed Angelique Kerber, No. 5 Victoria Azarenka and No. 6 Simona Halep all losing before the quarterfinals.
The dream scenario for fans and television executives is still alive, with Venus Williams on course for a possible semifinal showdown against her sister.
However, the elder Williams sister will face her stiffest test yet with a fourth-round battle against No. 8 Timea Bacsinszky. Williams does have a 2-0 career edge against Bacsinszky, with their most recent matchup being a 6-1, 6-4 victory at the 2014 U.S. Open.
Howard Fendrich of the Associated Press noted that Williams' success so far in this French Open is a tremendous turnaround given her recent history at this tournament:
"She first competed at the French Open as a teen in 1997. Nearly 20 years later, the American is the oldest woman in the field, a few weeks shy of her 36th birthday.
Williams owns seven major singles titles — five at Wimbledon, two at the U.S. Open — but has not been much of a factor at Roland Garros in recent years. She didn't participate in the 2011 tournament, then lost in the first or second round every year from 2012-15.
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Fourth seed Garbine Muguruza is the sleeping giant in this entire equation. She's on the bottom of the draw, giving her a respite from the top-ranked Williams until the final, and has already reached the quarterfinals after making quick work of Svetlana Kuznetsova on Sunday.
Just 22 years old, Muguruza has now reached three consecutive French Open quarterfinals. Her previous two losses have come against either the tournament winner (Maria Sharapova in 2014) or the runner-up (Lucie Safarova in 2015).
This looks to be Muguruza's time to take that next step, with Tumaini Carayol of Eurosport noting how impressive her win over Kuznetsova was:
"For an hour and a half, seemingly every Muguruza strike elicited pained winces from the crowd in empathy with the poor ball. Her serve, not always the weapon it should be for someone of her stature and game style, painted the lines and set up so many opportunities to pull the trigger. Her backhand is best described in a series of fire emojis as it had the final say in so many important points and slammed all opportunities shut.
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Williams will always be given the benefit of the doubt in any tournament because of her reputation, but there are times in the past in which she was her own worst enemy when things weren't going her way.
Muguruza is on the ascent, ready to make her mark as the new star in women's tennis. This is her moment and one she will not shy away from, running all the way into her first French Open final.
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