It’s been one week since Roland Garros started and the tournament is in full swing. It  is already clear who are the participants in the second week, but which ones will be the first qualified for the quarterfinals we get to know tomorrow after the matches being played on the courts in Paris. When they got in that stage of the tournament it’s supposed that they have the force for more.

(3) Stan Wawrinka – (22) Viktor Troicki

Defending champion Stan Wawrinka is in advanced position in this year Roland Garros. He started the tournament slowly with hard 5-sets battle. His next 2 matches were different and the Swiss won both easily in 3-sets. He beat consecutive L.Rosol, T.Daniel and 30-th seed J.Chardy to reach 4th round. After he made the big sensation last year, Stan continues to be stable in his results. This season so far he won 3 titles – in Chennai, Dubai and Geneva in the week before the start of Roland Garros. Seems that this title has given him confidence and with the tournament progresses Stan looks more and more stable. He won 7 matches on clay this year and lost 3. Stan has 11 appearances in Paris and in this time he achieved 27 wins against 10 failures.

Opponent for Stan will be the Serb Viktor Troicki. He started 2016 solid, with title defense in Sydney and captured his 3rd ATP singles title. Troicki played another final a month later – in the opening edition of Sofia open, but lost the last match in 3-sets against Roberto Bautista Agut. Since february he didn’t win 3 consecutive matches before last week. In first round in Paris he beat Grigor Dimitrov in long 5-sets match. In his second match Dusan Lajovic, the compatriot was forced to retire in 3rd set due to injury. In Friday Troicki beat unexpectedly easy the 16th seed Gilles Simon and became part of last 16. Troicki reached this stage on Roland Garros 2 times – in 2011 and 2013. Tomorrow he goes against last year’s champion to try to reach new best result in Paris. But whether he will hinder the Swiss?

Wawrinka and Troicki played 4 times and Stan won all of those matches. Last one was in Paris Masters last year and the he win in 2-sets.

(5) Kei Nishikori – (9) Richard Gasquet

Another interesting match on tomorrow’s program is that one.

Nishikori started the tournament with 2 consecutive 3-sets wins, but his 3rd round match was even more harder. Kei closed first 2 sets concentrated, but lost next 2 against Fernando Verdasco. In the final set he made a break and won the match with score 6/3 6/4 3/6 2/6 6/4. With a great stats of 29 wins and 9 losses this season Kei looks like he is one of the hidden favorites for the title.

Memphis champion will meet Richard Gasquet in 4th round. He has already made3 3-sets wins. In the last match his opponent Nick Kyrgios was absolutely outplayed with the beautiful one-handed backhand which Gasquet posseses.

Gasquet leads 6-2 in the matches they played against each other. Last 2 matches was this year, in last 2 clay Masters – Madrid and Rome. In both meetings winner was Kei in 2-sets.  Whether this will be a tournament in which the Japanese will make even greater pace of US Open 2014? First of all , he needs to pass a really tough opponent in 3/5 format in front of home crowd.

(4) Garbine Muguruza – (13) Svetlana Kuznetsova

 4th seed Muguruza started the tournament with hard opening match against well-played Schmiedlova but her next 2 matches were perfectly played. She served baggels in both of them –  one for M.Georges and one for Y.Wickmayer. Former quarterfinalist looking forward for first Grand Slam title and all specialists says that she is ready for that step. Is Roland Garros 2016 her torunament still nobody can say, we can only watch her game with the progress of matches. This year she hasn’t reached any final yet and is the only top player without title. But Garbine is in the top of the ranking because of her great results last year and if she goes more into the tournament she can reached no.2 in world’s ranking.

 Former champion in Paris and hard opponent for all players, Svetlana Kuznetsova should always be taken seriously. Winner in 2009 and former no.2 in the world, Sveta come to Paris with good results in 2016. She won one title -January in Sydney and played final in Miami in March. She played 9 matches on clay and win 6 of them. Kuznetsova’s favourite Slam exactly is Roland Garros. She has one more final here – in 2006 and some quarterfinals and semis.

Muguruza and Kuznetsova played only 1 time before. It happened on clay, last year in Madrid and winner became Svetlana in long 3-sets battle, which ended with final score 6/3 5/7 7/5. The Russian has the confidence of the player, who achieved more in her career compared to his opponent tomorrow. Two strong ladies will face tomorrow each other in a serious fight. Don’t miss it!

 (6) Simona Halep – (21) Samantha Stosur

 Two former fiinalists will play tomorrow.

Halep, like Muguruza, is player who is in the top of the ranking from a long time and still searching for her first Grand Slam triumph. Finalist 2 seasons ago, Halep started this year’s Roland Garros with easy first round win against N.Hibino, in 2nd she needed one tiebreak to beat Z.Diyas. 3rd round for the Romanian was quite tough. She made comeback from 0/1 set down against young japanese N. Osaka. Last year Halep lost in the 2nd round, so now the moment is perfect to add new points and get higher in rankings. This year she won the biggest clay tournament before French Open – Premier Mandatory event in Madrid and after the slow start of the season she shows improved form.

Samantha Stosur, finalist from 2010, is in round 16 again. She already played 2 3-sets matches. In first round against M.Doi and in third against last year finalist Lucie Safarova. In this match Samantha was the better player in a high-quality battle. She is player who loves clay courts and her results this year shows that fact. She played final in Prague but lost against Safarova. In Madrid the Australian achieved semifinal, where was beaten by Simona Halep.

They played in the semis in Madrid and Halep won with a score of 6/2 6/0. They played 6 more times. In first 3 matches in period 2010-2012 the winner became Stosur, but in the last 4 matches 2013-2016 on the winning side was Halep.

Another big day is coming! Who will be on the winning position and reach the quarterfinals?