PARIS: Flavio Cobolli clawed into the French Open quarter-finals, beating Zachary Svajda 6-2, 6-3, 6-7(3/7), 7-6(7/5) while in the women’s section Russia’s Diana Shnaider defeat Madison Keys 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 on Monday.

Italian 10th seed Cobolli overcame some late nerves to beat Svajda on Court Philippe Chatrier. Cobolli wobbled badly from 4-0 and 5-1 up in the fourth set, before finally getting over the line in a tie-break to reach his second Grand Slam quarter-final after Wimbledon last year.

“The match is never done and today I almost shit in my pants,” said Cobolli. “I’m happy but I’m still nervous.”

Cobolli raced through the first two sets in a total of one hour 25 minutes, breaking twice in each.

Then he wobbled once to surrender the third set and, leading 5-1 and with a match point, wobbled again in the fourth before surging through the tiebreak.

“The match is never done and today I almost shit in my pants,” said Cobolli on court immediately after the match.

He offered a more analytical response at his later press conference.

“I think when the match is almost done, you start to think of it, and that’s the problem with my character, because I don’t like to think a bit,” he said. “I just want to play, play my best tennis possible. But if I think, especially if I’m nervous, I start to play a different tennis.”

At No.10, the Italian goes into the last eight as the third-highest remaining men’s seed. It will be the 24-year-old’s second Grand Slam quarter-final. He reached the last eight at Wimbledon last season.

Twice in the third set Svajda, a 23-year-old American, held serve to save the match. He then took the tiebreak as Cobolli’s accuracy deserted him.

In the fourth, Cobolli galloped to a 4-0 lead. From 5-1 up he could not finish Zvajda off, wasting a match point at 5-4.

The Italian found just enough composure to take the tiebreak and win in three hours, 21 minutes.

Earlier, Shnaider overcame a second set blip to battle past American Keys and advance to her maiden Grand Slam quarter-final.

Former Australian Open winner Keys’s defeat leaves Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka as the only Grand Slam champions left in either the men’s or women’s singles draws.

The 22-year-old left-hander, seeded 25th, had to recover from a second-set concentration lapse before dishing out a bagel with her heavy top-spin forehand, to book a last-eight spot.

Neither player was able to hold serve for the first four games and while Shnaider, ranked 23rd in the world, did manage to hold on her third attempt, Keys failed to do so until after Shnaider was 5-2 up.

Keys, the 2025 Australian Open champion, could do nothing to stop the Russian clinching the first set a game later with a powerful forehand down the line.

The tables were turned in the second set with Keys being more aggressive and reducing her number of unforced errors to level. Shnaider quickly recovered and raced through the decider.

Meanwhile, Austrian 28th seed Anastasia Potapova could not back up her win over defending champion Gauff, twice failing to serve for the match in a 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(10/7) defeat by Anna Kalinskaya.

The Russian will next face Polish qualifier Maja Chwalinska after she continued her remarkable run by cruising past the last remaining French player, Diane Parry, 6-3, 6-2.

“She’s one of the top players in the world. No one knows me, to be honest, so definitely a very challenging one, like every match here,” said Chwalinska of facing Kalinskaya.

On Sunday, Joao Fonseca downed twice runner-up Casper Ruud 7-5, 7-6(10/8), 5-7, 6-2 to reach his maiden Grand Slam quarter-final in front of his idol and three-times winner Gustavo Kuerten.

“He’s an idol for our sport and country, for his charisma and how humble he is,” Fonseca said. “He was here for my first time at Roland Garros when I was a junior. It is a pleasure to have him here and a pleasure to beat a tough opponent in front of him.”

Published in Dawn, June 2nd, 2026