Zverev and Ruud through to the round of 16 as the two new favourites in a Roland-Garros draw without Sinner, Djoković and Alcaraz

Alexander Zverev and Casper Ruud both reached the round of 16 of Roland-Garros on Friday evening, becoming the two highest-rated names in a men’s draw that had lost world No. 1 Jannik Sinner and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djoković in the same week.

Zverev, the second seed, beat France’s Quentin Halys 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 on Court Philippe-Chatrier. Ruud, the 15th seed and a two-time Roland-Garros finalist, came back from two sets to love down to beat American 24th seed Tommy Paul 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(4), 7-5 over four hours and twelve minutes on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.

The two routes contrasted sharply. Zverev had spent the first week of the tournament producing the controlled, low-error tennis that has been his pattern across the spring — straight-sets wins over Benjamin Bonzi and Tomáš Macháč in the opening two rounds, and a controlled four-set contest against Halys that he led from the opening exchanges.

The world No. 90 took the third set 7-5 when Zverev briefly lost focus on his own serve, but the German’s serve and forehand combination did the work for the other three. He is into the round of 16 at this tournament for the seventh time in his career, and has only ever been beyond it once – his 2024 final run, lost to Carlos Alcaraz.

Ruud’s path required a different kind of escape. The 26-year-old Norwegian, twice a beaten finalist on this court, was down two sets and on track to make a first-round-of-32 exit at the tournament he has spent his career trying to win. He converted all three of the break points he created against Paul. The American converted only two of the 14 break points he generated. The maths of the match was, by Ruud’s own account, the entire story.

“It’s hard to say exactly what was the difference. I mean, a few points,” he said afterwards. “I think the statistics showed that I took care of my break points and won all of the break points I had, which was three. He only won 2 out of 14, so that’s just unfortunate for him and kind of fortunate and lucky for me. But that’s how tennis is. It’s just such a brutal sport sometimes.”

The reward for Ruud is the matchup the Roland-Garros draw has been waiting to see since the Djoković result an hour earlier. He will face João Fonseca, the 19-year-old Brazilian 28th seed who eliminated Djoković in five sets to make the first round of 16 of his Grand Slam career. The two have never met.

Zverev’s round-of-16 opponent is Jesper de Jong, the 25-year-old Dutchman who entered the draw as a lucky loser and beat Stan Wawrinka in the opening round before reaching the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. With the upper half of the men’s draw thinned beyond recognition – Sinner, Fritz, Medvedev, Bublik, Lehečka all out – the German is now the heavy favourite to reach the final from his half. Ruud, in the same situation in the lower half after Djoković’s exit, may have an even shorter list of remaining contenders standing between him and the second week.