PARIS (AP) \u2014 Anna Kalinskaya surprised herself after defeating Anastasia Potapova 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (10-7) to reach her first\u00a0French Open\u00a0quarterfinal on Monday.<\/p>\n
The Russian had not expected to get this far.<\/p>\n
\u201cThinking two weeks ago that I will be here, I wouldn\u2019t believe it,\u201d she said. \u201cI would probably laugh with my team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Perhaps setting a low bar has helped her play more freely in the opening rounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just take this clay season very easy mentally. I don\u2019t put too much pressure to do well. I guess it helps,\u201d the No. 22 seed said. \u201cI didn\u2019t have any expectations on clay for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Their contest on Court Suzanne-Lenglen stretched to almost three hours after Potapova failed to serve out the match twice in the decider and Kalinskaya overturned a 4-1 deficit in the super tiebreak.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’m super proud, and I can’t believe it,\u201d Kalinskaya said. \u201cThe match was so long, so I\u2019m still processing what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
It will be Kalinskaya’s second quarterfinal at a major beside the 2024 Australian Open.<\/p>\n
Despite pre-tournament men\u2019s favourite Jannik Sinner losing in the second round, Italian fans will have at least one player in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
Tenth-seeded Flavio Cobolli advanced to his second Grand Slam quarterfinal \u2014 and his first here \u2014 after beating American Zachary Svajda 6-2, 6-3, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s for sure my favourite Grand Slam to play,\u201d Cobolli said after winning on Court Philippe-Chatrier. \u201cWe have the best feeling with the surface as Italians.\u201d<\/p>\n
A little while after his win, Cobolli \u2014 a former youth soccer player at Italian club Roma \u2014 joined players from the Paris Saint-Germain team as they paraded the Champions League trophy on Chatrier. PSG beat Arsenal in the final on Saturday.<\/p>\n
His next opponent will be No. 4 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime, who beat Alejandro Tabilo 6-3, 7-5, 6-1 to reach the last eight at all four majors. But the Canadian has never been beyond the semifinals.<\/p>\n
Big-serving Matteo Berrettini, the other remaining Italian, joined Cobolli in the quarterfinals after beating Juan Manuel Cerundolo 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (6). Berrettini last reached the quarters here in 2021.<\/p>\n
French hopes were over following Diane Parry’s 6-3, 6-2 loss to Maja Chwalinska of Poland. There were also no more Americans in the women’s draw after Madison Keys lost to Diana Shnaider 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.<\/p>\n
Chwalinska had never been beyond the second round of any major, and has not even made it into the main draw at the U.S. Open. Her run is even more impressive since she came through three qualifying rounds and was ranked No. 114.<\/p>\n
Big names have gone out of the French Open \u2014 defending champion Coco Gauff, four-time winner Iga Swiatek, and No. 2-ranked Elena Rybakina \u2014 but it makes little difference to Chwalinska.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever I\u2019m playing, I\u2019m lower in the rankings, so it doesn\u2019t matter for me,\u201d Chwalinska said smiling. \u201cSo they are the favourites to win. I\u2019m like an underdog. No one really knows me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, last year’s runner-up, takes on Naomi Osaka in a match between four-time Grand Slam winners. It is the first\u00a0women\u2019s night match\u00a0at the\u00a0French Open\u00a0in three years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS (AP) \u2014 Anna Kalinskaya surprised herself after defeating Anastasia Potapova 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (10-7) to reach her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":708721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":["post-708720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=708720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/708720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=708720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=708720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=708720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}