LEARNING
An all-unseeded quarterfinal finds 19-year-old World No.54 Iga Swiatek, the youngest player left in the draw, taking on No.159-ranked qualifier Martina Trevisan, the lowest-ranked player remaining, for the third time. The pair have split their two previous meetings: Trevisan defeated Swiatek three weeks after her 16th birthday 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 in the first round of the 2017 Warsaw ITF $25K event on clay, going on to win the title. That was also Swiatek's last tournament before ankle surgery would sideline her for six months; the next time she faced Trevisan, in Birmingham qualifying last year on grass, the Pole won 6-3, 6-4.
No.3 seed Elina Svitolina, the only remaining seed in the top half of the draw and the highest-ranked player left, faces No.131-ranked qualifier Nadia Podoroska for the first time. The last time Svitolina lost to a player ranked outside the Top 100 was in the second round of Birmingham 2017, when World No.102 Camila Giorgi defeated her 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Podoroska, who owns five Top 100 wins to date - including a career-best victory over World No.27 Yulia Putintseva in the second round - will face a Top 20 opponent for the first time in her career.
Martina Trevisan and Nadia Podoroska's runs out of qualifying to the quarterfinals mark the first time that two qualifiers have reached the last eight of a major since Wimbledon 1999, when Alexandra Stevenson and Jelena Dokic clashed at this stage, with Stevenson becoming the only qualifier to reach a Grand Slam semifinal in the Open Era. Two qualifiers have reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros only once previously in the Open Era, in 1978, when 1970 runner-up Helga Niessen Masthoff - competing in her last major - and Mirka Bendlova both made the last eight.
Both Trevisan and Podoroska are competing in their second Grand Slam main draw. Podoroska made her debut at the age of 19 by qualifying for the 2016 US Open (defeating Oceane Dodin and Donna Vekic en route) before falling to Annika Beck in the first round; she would climb to World No.158 by May 2017 before being sidelined by a wrist injury for eight months. This year, a phenomenal resurgence has seen Podoroska build a 42-6 win-loss record and counting, including an active 12-match winning streak that started with the Saint-Malo ITF W60 title three weeks ago, and the Argentinian hit a new career high of World No.130 in September.
Trevisan's first Grand Slam main draw was the Australian Open in January, where she qualified via wins over Ysaline Bonaventure and Eugenie Bouchard before losing to eventual champion Sofia Kenin in the first round. Both Trevisan and Podoroska are guaranteed to break the Top 100 for the first time next week.
POL
Swiatek has also reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal in her seventh main draw, having already posted fourth-round runs at Roland Garros last year and the Australian Open in January. The teenager is also the second Pole to reach this stage in Paris in the Open Era following Agnieszka Radwanska, a quarterfinalist once in 2013.
Svitolina has reached her seventh major quarterfinal, and third at Roland Garros. Having lost the first four major quarterfinals of her career - to Ana Ivanovic at Roland Garros 2015, Simona Halep at Roland Garros 2017, Elise Mertens at the 2018 Australian Open and Naomi Osaka at the 2019 Australian Open - Svitolina broke through to her first pair of Grand Slam semifinals at Wimbledon and the US Open last year.
Podoroska is the first Argentinian to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal since Paola Suárez at Wimbledon 2004, and the first to reach the last eight of Roland Garros since Suárez's semifinal run in the same year. Trevisan is the first Italian quarterfinalist in Paris since Sara Errani's most recent run to the last eight in 2015. Trevisan's run combined with 19-year-old ATP World No.75 Jannik Sinner's progress to the same stage marks just the second time an Italian man and woman have both reached the last eight of a Grand Slam in the Open Era, following Roland Garros 2011, where Francesca Schiavone made the final and Fabio Fognini the quarterfinals.
Prior to last week, Trevisan had scored just one Top 100 victory in her career, over Pauline Parmentier in the 2016 Biarritz ITF $100K quarterfinals. In Paris, she has added another four, one in each round, including a maiden Top 10 win over Kiki Bertens in the fourth round.
Swiatek, Podoroska and Trevisan, together with Laura Siegemund in the bottom half of the draw, comprise four unseeded players in the last eight of Roland Garros for the first time since 1988 (Bettina Fulco-Vilella, Helen Kelesi, Nicole Bradtke and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario). The last time the tournament saw more unseeded quarterfinalists was in 1976, when the women's event was a 64-player draw with just eight seeds to start with.
Swiatek, Podoroska, Trevisan and Siegemund also mark the first time there have been four players making their Grand Slam quarterfinal debuts at a major since the 2009 US Open (Yanina Wickmayer, Kateryna Bondarenko, Melanie Oudin and Caroline Wozniacki). The last time there were more was at Roland Garros 2001 (Francesca Schiavone, Kim Clijsters, Petra Mandula, Lina Krasnoroutskaya and Justine Henin).
TRENDING
To be back in the quarterfinals at @rolandgarros after making my comeback here 3 years ago...
— Petra Kvitova (@Petra_Kvitova) October 5, 2020
I have so many emotions going through my head, but for now I will just keep on fighting 💪 #couragebeliefpojd #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/zHef2DiS1Y
ORDER OF PLAY
With main draw play whittled down to the two main stadiums at Roland Garros, Ons Jabeur and Danielle Collins face off in the first match on Court Philippe-Chatrier to conclude the round of 16, before quarterfinal play begins.
For the Order of Play in full, visit rolandgarros.com.
READING
Iga Swiatek has credited psychologist Daria Abramovicz with helping her on the mental side of the game. Find out more about former sailor Abramovicz's philosophy in an exclusive interview with WTA Insider Courtney Nguyen.
The plethora of upsets in both women's and men's draws at Roland Garros this year has been noteworthy; Danielle Rossingh breaks down the underlying factors behind the underdog surges at rolandgarros.com.
WATCHING
