French Open 2016: Results, Highlights, Thursday Scores Recap from Roland Garros

After a number of starts and stops, the quarterfinals at the 2016 French Open finally concluded Thursday.

Top seeds Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams each advanced, and Dominic Thiem and Kiki Bertens set themselves up for potential upset bids in the semis.

Djokovic progressed to his sixth consecutive French semifinal with a breezy 6-3, 7-5, 6-3 win over seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych.

The three-set triumph was a generally clean, uneventful affair, with Djokovic outclassing a solid match from Berdych. The world No. 1 picked up 30 winners against 22 unforced errors, dominating on his serve and taking advantage of his opponent's limited mistakes.

Men's Quarterfinal	Score
Men's Quarterfinal	Score
(1) Novak Djokovic def. (7) Tomas Berdych	6-3,7-5,6-3
(13) Dominic Thiem def. (12) David Goffin	4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-1
(1) Serena Williams def. Yulia Putintseva	5-7, 6-4, 6-1
Kiki Bertens def. (8) Timea Bacsinszky	7-5, 6-2

Berdych gave Djokovic only eight break opportunities in three sets, and the Serb converted six. Berdych, who was looking for his second career French semis (2010), did make 28 unforced errors and double faulted three times.

The match had a brief stoppage for rain, but Djokovic coasted to his ninth straight Grand Slam semifinal.

Last year's French Open runner-up has now reached the final four in 30 major events, third-most in the Open Era, per ESPN.com.

The closest Djokovic came to losing actually came when he tossed a racquet in frustration and nearly hit a line judge, as noted by BBC Tennis:

The world No. 1 will face No. 13 seed Thiem, who reached his first Grand Slam semifinal with a 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4, 6-1 win over David Goffin.

After a hard-fought first set that saw Goffin convert all three of his break-point chances, Thiem battled back in the second despite 22 unforced errors and earned a 9-7 tiebreak win that changed the course of the match.

Thiem took an advantage at 6-4 in what was the cleanest set of the match. The burgeoning youngsters combined for just 10 unforced errors, but Thiem took control on the back of a 15-7 advantage on winners. He also won all but five of his first-serve points and nearly half of his returns in the set.

By the fourth, Thiem was rolling. He allowed Goffin only two winners as he closed him out 6-1, failing to offer him a single break point as he won 12 of his 14 first-serve points. Overall, Thiem's aggression throughout resulted in 46 unforced errors and 49 winners. 

The Roland Garros Twitter feed offered a shot of Thiem's elation at his win:

On the women's side, Williams had to battle her way to her seventh straight Slam semifinal. She dropped the first set to unseeded Yulia Putintseva before grinding her way to a 5-7, 6-4, 6-1 victory.

Playing a conservative style, Putintseva committed just 16 unforced errors and tried to bank on Williams defeating herself.

It nearly worked.

The world No. 1 committed 24 of her 43 unforced errors in a sloppy first set, allowing Putintseva to win 22 of her 30 service points.

Visibly frustrated, Williams seemed to be teetering on the edge of a mental collapse—something we've seen happen all too often. Instead, she steadied herself in the second set, breaking Putintseva three times before turning on the jets in the third.

Williams finished the match with double Putintseva's winners (36-18) and four more aces. Chris Fowler of ESPN was impressed:

Still, it's hard to quibble with the way Putintseva played. She entered the event ranked 60th in the world and came within two games of beating the world's best player.

That task will now be left up to another unseeded foe: Kiki Bertens, who advanced to her first Slam semifinal with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Timea Bacsinszky.

Bertens broke the eighth-seed seven times, taking advantage of her surprising struggles with the serve. Bacsinszky committed 40 unforced errors and lost on 41 of her 72 serve points overall—a recipe for disaster in any match.

While she was able to break Bertens three times in the first set, it seemed like Bacsinszky was barely keeping her head above water the entire match. She failed to convert on five of six break chances in the second set and never quite found her game.

Bertens has faced Williams once, giving her a bit of a hard time in the 2015 U.S. Open. She forced a tiebreak in the first set before losing 7-6(5), 6-3.

It'll no doubt be an uphill battle for the world No. 58, as the red (clay) carpet seems to be rolled out for Williams making the finals.

The same can be said for Djokovic, who has cruised past Thiem in both of their career head-to-heads. The only real saving grace for Thiem and Bertens is that their matchups are limited. Upsets are a bit more likely when the favorites have little feel of how the underdog plays—especially ones with nothing to lose.

---

Thursday Reaction

Djokovic was already looking forward to his next match, per ESPN.com: "I'm very pleased to be in semifinals of another Grand Slam. But because of the fact that I have to play every day, my focus right away goes for recovery and the next match. I don't have much time."

Berdych was extremely displeased by the delay: "When the referee came down and she told us 'We wait a few minutes, if it [the rain] stops or not.' I was like: 'Waiting for what? What's the point of this?' The court won't get better. It will get only get worse. We will be sitting in 10 degrees here, and there is no sense at all."

Djokovic also spoke of nearly hitting the line judge, per Christopher Clarey of the New York Times: “I mean it’s obvious what I tried to do. I don’t understand your question. I threw a racket on the ground, and it slipped and almost hit the line umpire. I was lucky there. That’s all.”

Williams was complimentary of Putintseva, per Nick McCarvel of USA Today: “She played unbelievable. I didn’t think I was going to win that in the second set. Somehow I did. And I’m really excited.”

Bertens called her semifinals berth "unbelievable," per Reuters (via Daily Mail): "I am just going to go out there and have fun again and give my all."