Roundup: Nishikori, Raonic bow out at Roland Garros
Xinhua, May 30, 2016 Adjust font size:
Japan's top netman Kei Nishikori failed to make the French Open quarterfinals on Sunday, losing to Frenchman Richard Gasquet after rain interruption, while Canadian Milos Raonic was ousted by unheralded Spanish player Albert Ramos-Vinolas.
The fifth seeded Nishikori, former U.S. Open finalist, was leading 4-2 in the opening set before rain stormed Roland Garros, but came back from the dressing room to see his French opponent fired up to open a 6-4, 2-0 lead.
With the six games won in a row, Gasquet wrapped up the fourth round match 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 to reach his home Grand Slam last eight for the first time time in 13 attempts.
The ninth seed admitted after the match that he wouldn't have made it if it were not for a rain delay.
"I think it was a very important time for me to stop because I was playing not good, I was playing far from the baseline and very slow," said Gasquet, who committed to back-to-back defeats on clay to Nishikori earlier this month in Rome and Madrid.
The sole Frenchman remaining in the French Open main draw will next play world No. 2 Andy Murray as the Scot beat 15th seeded American John Isner 7-6 (9), 6-4, 6-3.
At the other end of the bottom half on men's singles draw, eighth seed Raonic lost to Ramos-Vinolas in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.
Ramos-Vinolas, who's never passed the second round in his 18 previous grand slam appearances, broke the Canadian five times and saved 6 out of 7 break points throughout the match.
The 55-ranked Spaniard thus made it through to the first major quarters in his career to face defending champion Stan Wawrinka, who beat 22nd Serb Viktor Troicki 7-6 (5), 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-2.
On the women's part, fourth seed Garbine Muguruza, sixth-seeded Simona Halep and world No. 2 Agnieszka Radwanska all advanced to the last eight, while Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu crashed out after losing 6-3, 6-4 to unseeded Americxan Shelby Rogers.
Also on Sunday, Xu Yifan and Zheng Saisai made their second major quarterfinal of the women's doubles after beating Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia 7-5, 7-5.
The ninth-seeded Chinese, who reached the semifinal of Australian Open earlier this year, boosted their chances of vying for a berth to the Rio Olympic Games with the victory on clay-court.
Later on, Xu partnered with Croatian Marin Draganja in the mixed doubles second round, losing 6-3, 6-4 to the third-seeded local favorites Kristina Mladenovic/Pierre-Hugues Herbert, leaving her women's doubles pairing up with Zheng the only Chinese representative at Roland Garros. Endit