Round 4 is upon us! Today I preview some of the matches that have the potential to be very tight, likely decided in a long and exhausting battle.

(28) Flavia Pennetta v (21) Garbine Muguruza

They have already played two matches and Garbine is leading 2-0, although was on indoor and outdoor hard court. Both have been impressive so far and their R4 match is looking to be a good one on paper. Flavia is rolling back the years and she has become more aggressive, from what I saw, she tries to shorten the points and scored a big win over Carla Suarez Navarro in her previous round. At 33 the Italian definitely showed that to peak at the right time is what matters as Carla was the favourite from her accomplishments on the tuneup clay tournaments. Flavia hasn’t been good at all in RG over the years with only two R4 showings in 13 attempts, but she has found the groove here from many years of disappointments. Garbine played her aggressive and well composed game and took away her first major test in the face of Kerber. She was almost 50/50 on her Winners/Unforced errors ratio, but after dropping the 1^st set she wasn’t much troubled the rest of the way… When she’s on, Garbine can surely win against anyone, but her high risk game sometimes gives her trouble when errors and doubt faults start to creep in… Defending Quarterfinalist from last year, she looks determined to at least match that performance but I can’t count out Flavia’s chances as well. She has proven that when you least expect she keeps coming back and goes deep in tournaments despite her opponent’s ranking and form.

Andreea Mitu v Alison Van Uytvanck

I agree that there are many other interesting matches on the Women’s side of the draw than this one right here, but decided to write about it as it’s a stepping stone and major breakthrough for both. Regardless, the winner would see her name in the QF section of the Draw. Mitu is currently sitting at No.67 in the live rankings while Alison is 63-rd with the winner most surely cracking the top 50 for first time… After shoulder problems, and also struggling with the financial side of the game she was already contemplating retirement 12 months ago, but a surge to the Wimbledon MD starting from Qualies made her re-think and shortly after her results started to improve. She is a solid player from back of the court and her backhand down the line has already made life hard for her previous opponents – no.12 seed Karolina Pliskova and her recent win over Francesca Schiavone. Many think that her improved confidence is coming from winning a Fed Cup match versus slumping Genie Bouchard in February. Alison has already had 3 wins as an underdog in Paris, most notably against home hope Kristina Mladenovic. Backed by good support from Belgian fans of her own, she showed variety and was making very good shots from the get go and never actually let Kristina into the match. Andrea and Alison have split two meetings so far but the latest was 2 years ago. Very emotional and high stakes for both.

(14) Jo-Wilfried Tsonga v (4) Tomas Berdych

Incredibly these two have already met 10 times, with the Czech leading 7-3, but this will be their first Grand Slam match and first in a best of 5 sets. Jo hasn’t had much problems so far with 3 straight set victories, while Tomas dropped 1 set each in his last 2 matches and has looked vulnerable at times. Berdych’s last one versus Paire was not pretty to watch and the Czech failed to serve out the match and was feeling a lot of pressure coming mainly from the French crowd who of course made it all look like a Davis Cup match. Benoir helped Tomas with 65 UE in the process while Berdych was just the more solid from the two… With the home crowd behind him Tsonga will look to improve on the H2H department despite that Tomas is a bad matchup for him. The Frenchman has been steady and is good to see he plays on a high level once again after he aggravated an arm injury that forced him out of Australian Open in the beginning of the year. Winning consecutive matches in only 2 of the 5 tournaments he played before coming to compete to RG surely showed that his way back won’t be as quick as many hoped for. Bookies have put Tomas as a deserving favourite but it remains to be seen how he handles the pressure coming not only from the player on the other side of the net, but from the stands as well.

(13) Gael Monfils v (2) Roger Federer

H2H Is 8-4 in favour of Fed, but surprisingly the last 2 matches both played on clay have gone to the Frenchman with the latest one a straight set win in Monte Carlo where Gael was a good 4.00+ in underdog. They also have played 3 times in RG over the years and Roger have dropped only 1 set in total. Monfils would have not been here, if it wasn’t for some late heroics against Pablo Cuevas in the previous round. Down with a double break in the 4-th set, he somehow found a way and stormed his way back into the match under the guidance of the very vocal home crowd, finishing the match 6-3 in the 5^th. Fatigue may come to play at some part of the match for Gael despite him being well prepared for battle especially at home. Roger has breezed through the first 3 rounds without dropping a set and has spent significantly less time that his opponent on court. He is looking to go at least one step further than last year, a 5 set loss to Ernests Gulbis. This is the first big test for the Swiss at this French Open as his previous opponents didn’t have the pace or game to harm him. A highly anticipated and entertaining encounter with the Le Monf mark on, but can he survive 1 more round?