French Open Quarter-Finals preview- Can anyone stop Swiatkek? Young guns are staring at Roland Garros

The French Open Tennis tournament at Roland Garros has seen some breath-taking tennis played by both men’s and women’s players.

We have now reached the quarter-final stages of the tournament, with just under a third of the 16 players aged 21 and under.

Could this be the start of a trend where so many good up and coming young players are threatening to break into the latter stages of slams?

In the men’s quarter-finals the standout match will see a pairing that won’t feature any up and coming youngsters, instead it will see two heavyweight giants collide when the number one seed Novak Djokovic faces his old rival the number five seed and king of clay Rafael Nadal.

Djokovic, has so far sailed through the competition having yet to drop a set, whilst Nadal will come into the meeting of the big two on the back of a gruelling fourth round five set match against Felix Auger-Alliassime which lasted well over four hours.

German Alexander Zverev the number three seed will face the brilliant and exciting Spanish youngster Carlos Alcaraz.

The 19-year-old has already this year looked a future world number one after winning 28 of 31 matches played and winning four tournaments to move him up to number six in the world.

Despite a tough second round five setter against fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos- Vinolas, the youngster hasn’t dropped a set since.

Zverev, also had a battle to overcome an opponent in the second round after defeating Argentinian Sebastian Baez.

The third quarter-final will see two relatively unknown players battle it out for a semi-final berth when number eight seed from Norway Casper Ruud locks horns with Danish 19-year-old unseeded Holger Rune.

The Dane has already knocked out the number 14 seed Dennis Shapovalov and on Monday took out the number four seed Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The final men’s quarter-final will see Russian Andrey Rublev up against the experienced 33-year-old Croatian Marin Cilic who caused a big upset in the tournament by taking out the number two seed Daniil Medvedev in straight sets in under two hours.

In the women’s quarter-finals the number one seed and new number one Iga Swiatek is the only top five seed left in the draw.

The Pole has taken her run of winning matches this year to a remarkable 32 matches and is the lady that the others will have to beat to go and win the tournament.

Swiatek has so far just dropped one set in the tournament to the Chinese girl Zheng in the last round and is looking in unbelievable form.

Her opponent in the quarters will be American Jessica Pegula, seeded 11 in the tournament.

Two 25-year-old Russians will face each other for the right to a semi-final place when Veronika Kudermetova faces up to Daria Kasatkina.

The Russian Kasatkina has reached this stage having yet to drop a set and has looked comfortable in all her matches thus far.

The third quarter-final will see the exciting Canadian 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez up against the unseeded Italian Martina Trevisan ranked 59 in the world.

The Italian is another player who has yet to lose a set in the tournament whilst the Canadian has only dropped one set so far at Roland Garros.

The remaining quarter-final match will see an all-American affair with 18-year-old Coco Gauff up against the very experienced Sloane Stephens.

In the last round, Gauff brushed aside Elise Mertens in straight sets with Stephens progressing after a comfortable one hour 6-2, 6-0 victory over Jil Teichmann.

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