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Roland-Garros wrap - Sun May 31

Four-time champion Swiatek becomes the latest big name to lose

Iga Swiatek, Roland-Garros 2026, fourth round
©Clément Mahoudeau / FFT
 - Lee Goodall

We’re starting to lose count of the so-called favourites to leave Paris earlier than they intended and Iga Swiatek can add her name to that list after Sunday’s eight fourth round matches.

➡️ Sunday results
➡️ Monday order of play

Four times a champion on these red dust courts, the Pole, who was celebrating her 25th birthday on Sunday, lost a tight first set to the on-form Marta Kostyuk before the 23-year-old from Ukraine ran away with the second to go through 7-5, 6-1.

The result takes Kostyuk’s win streak to 16 matches, but despite that outstanding recent form she could still barely understand what had just happened on Court Philippe-Chatrier.

“[I’d] never taken a set off her, it's incredible,” she said. “I still cannot believe it.”

In two days she will play an all-Ukrainian quarterfinal against her friend Elina Svitolina, who beat Swiss Belinda Bencic 6-0 in the third set on Sunday. The winner will become the first woman from their nation to reach a Roland-Garros semifinal in the Open era.

Romania’s Sorana Cirstea provided another feel good story when she found a way past Chinese qualifier Wang Xiyu 6-3, 7-6(4) to make sure her final year on tour keeps on giving.

Her next challenge will be to get past youngster Mirra Andreeva - a player 17 years her junior - after the No.8 seed blew past Swiss Jil Teichmann 6-3, 6-1 to reach her third successive RG quarterfinal.

Joao Fonseca survived an absorbing night match to book a first ever Grand Slam quarterfinal as the 19-year-old from Rio hammered his way past Norway's Casper Ruud 7-5, 7-6(6), 5-7, 6-2 at gone midnight.

He’ll face Jakub Mensik in the last eight after the world No.27 held his nerve at the end of an entertaining fourth round duel with Andrey Rublev on Lenglen late in the evening 6-3, 7-6(6), 4-6, 2-6, 6-3. It's Mensik's first Grand Slam quarterfinal as well.

No.2 seed Alexander Zverev will play young Spanish star Rafael Jodar in the other quarterfinal in the bottom half of the draw.

Zverev found another gear against Dutch lucky loser Jesper de Jong when he was 3-0 down in a first set tiebreak to win 7-6(3), 6-4, 6-1 and remain the highest ranked player in the men’s draw.

Jodar's clay season gets more remarkable by the day as the 19-year-old took his recent win-loss stats on the dirt to 19-3 after a 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 victory against friend and fellow Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta.

Which players will step up on Monday as the remaining fourth round matches are settled and quarterfinal lineups confirmed?

We thought it’d be fun to get among the fans here to find out what they think so Chris Oddo mingled near Court Suzanne-Lenglen canvassing opinion. He even bumped into Jesper de Jong’s father, Paul, completely by chance.

One man in fourth round action on Monday has already enjoyed a special and emotional journey on the Paris clay. Zach Svajda's father passed away last October and on his Dad's birthday on Friday the 23-year-old from California beat Francisco Cerundolo to keep his French adventure going.

Zach opens up the Chatrier order of play against Italy's Flavio Cobolli on Monday and ahead of the ninth day of the main draw, Alix Ramsay makes her picks from the schedule.