French Open recap Day 6: Sorana Cîrstea becomes oldest player to serve Grand Slam double bagel
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Welcome to the French Open briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.
On Day 6, a player in her final season kept rolling, there was an optical illusion for one player, and the men’s new generation made a mark.
Another milestone for a player bowing out?
There was another milestone for Sorana Cîrstea on Friday, as she became the oldest player to dish out a double bagel at a Grand Slam. Cîrstea is playing her last year on the tour, aged 36, and at the French Open she hammered world No. 68 Solana Sierra 6-0, 6-0 to reach the fourth round and continue what’s been a stellar farewell season.
A season that has seen Cîrstea win the Transylvania Open in Romania, her home country, at the Transylvania Open, beat a world No. 1 for the first time (Aryna Sabalenka at the Italian Open earlier this month), and crack the world’s top 20 for the first time. In the live rankings for points accumulated this year, she is at No. 11, giving her a chance of making the WTA Finals for the world’s best eight players. Which would be an astonishing ending to a farewell year that barely caused a tremor when she announced it at the back end of 2025.
Cîrstea showed no mercy against Sierra and will next face the qualifier Wang Xiyu in the fourth round, giving her a very presentable chance of reaching a third Grand Slam quarterfinal.
“What I’ve seen this season that I feel is different is the consistency,” Cîrstea said in a news conference after beating Sierra. “I’ve been able to perform at the same level week in, week out, which maybe in the past it wasn’t the case, but again, I’m very, very grateful with everything that’s happening, I’m very grateful that all the work is paying off and I absolutely love tennis, and it’s a joy to be here.”
— Charlie Eccleshare
Which tradition did Roland Garros copy from the Olympics?
Two years after Roland Garros played host to the tennis tournament at the Paris Games, the French Open is taking some cues from the Olympics.
Tennis players can now collect and trade pins like Olympians. But instead of the baubles representing country delegations as they do during the Games, Roland Garros created French Open-themed pins, including a panama hat and a tennis ball. Players can pick up a pin for whichever draw they’re in — singles, doubles, wheelchair, mixed doubles — then one pin for each round they win.
Mirra Andreeva might be the biggest pin fan in the tournament. The 19-year-old arrived at her news conference after beating No. 27 seed Marie Bouzková of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-2, with pins halfway up her credential.
“They said that I could get three different pins a day. … I took all of them, everything that they had already,” Andreeva said.
The teenager was excited to get to participate in the fad after missing out during the Paris Games. Andreeva won the silver medal in women’s doubles alongside Diana Shnaider but, like many tennis players, didn’t live in the athletes’ village.
“I was not able to exchange pins with other athletes, but the physios in the locker room also gave me some pins,” Andreeva said. “Then I saw players here in the locker room, they gave me some, I gave them some. So from Olympics I also have full credential with different kinds of pins.”
Andreeva, it may be obvious, is a pro at this — she collected stickers as a child.
— Ava Wallace
How did the frazzling start to the tournament continue?
The baking-hot weather during opening week has frazzled everybody, leading to long matches, zombified players and an overwhelming feeling of carnage.
Friday was just as hot — but the drama kept coming from ever more unlikely places:
- World No. 66 Zeynep Sönmez of Turkey was forced to retire injured from a doubles match after tripping over an advertising block at the back of the court.
- Later, tournament organizers issued a statement saying the placement of advertising blocks near the back fences would be reviewed.
- The incident followed Belgian top-40 men’s player Alexander Blockx spraining his ankle and withdrawing from the tournament after he tripped on a tarp. Blockx’s team is considering a compensation claim.
Then there was Adolfo Daniel Vallejo, who responded to his five-set defeat to rising French teenager Moïse Kouame in front of a vociferous crowd on Court Suzanne-Lenglen by saying that the chair umpire, Ana Carvalho, was not strong enough to referee the match because she is a woman.
The FFT and tournament organizers said Vallejo would be fined for his comments.
And finally, some on-court drama, in the form of probably too many five-set matches.
To go with Fonseca vs. Djokovic and Ruud vs. Paul, there was lucky loser Jesper de Jong of the Netherlands and Russian No. 13 seed Karen Khachanov. De Jong, in the main draw only because Arthur Fils of France withdrew, beat Khachanov 7-5, 5-7, 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-2.
Fifteenth-seeded Casper Ruud was a marathon man like Fonseca, as the Norwegian came from two sets down against (24) Tommy Paul of the U.S. to win 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(4), 7-5, and Rafael Jódar (27) of Spain won a five-setter of his own, beating Alex Michelsen of the U.S. 7-6(2), 6-7(5), 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Jódar, 19, faced online backlash after he appeared to shove a ball kid during his match against Michelsen, but wider video angles show the ball kid tripping on the tarp at the back of the court and falling backward by happenstance at the exact moment Jodar makes a gesture with his hand.
In his news conference Friday, Jódar said he did not push anyone.
“No, I mean, I finished the second or third set. I don’t remember which set it was. She was walking backwards, and I think she — yeah, I mean, I didn’t push her or anything. I was telling my dad to give me the things that he was going to give me after a toilet break, when I was coming back,” Jódar said.
“But, yeah, she was in the middle, so I think she was trying to get out of the way. She was going backwards, but I think she, like, fell, but not because I push her, because it was something for, like what do you call it? The mop or … the court cover, yeah. It was right behind her. So when she was walking backwards, she fell with that.
“I appreciate all the work that the ball kids are doing. I know it’s difficult with the heat and the conditions to stay there, so I appreciate. I could never, you know, push a ball kid.”
— Charlie Eccleshare and Ava Wallace
Other notable results on Day 6:
- Marta Kostyuk (15) extended her 2026 clay record to 15-0 with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic. She will play four-time Roland Garros champion Iga Świątek (3) after Świątek won an all-Polish encounter against Magda Linette 6-4, 6-4.
- Andrey Rublev (11) recorded a timely straight-sets win, 7-5, 7-6(2), 7-6(2), over Nuno Borges of Portugal, as the Russian conserved some energy heading into the second week.
- Elina Svitolina (7) eased into the fourth round with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Germany’s Tamara Korpatsch.
- Germany’s Alexander Zverev (3) reached the last 16 with a 6-4, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 win over Quentin Halys of France.
Shot of the day
Karolína Muchová (10) may have lost 6-1, 7-5 to Jil Teichmann, but the Czech player won the battle of style:
Drop Shots
🇪🇸 Sports documentaries can be hagiographic. The new one on Rafael Nadal is an unsparing journey into his tennis suffering.
🏟️ Last year it was Arthur Fils. This year it is Moïse Kouame. When Court Suzanne-Lenglen receives a French player in need of a rocket boost, it fires the opponent into the sun.
Up next: Third round continues
🎾 Women’s singles: Iva Jović (17) vs. Naomi Osaka (16)
5 a.m. ET on TNT, HBO Max
Jović’s controlled aggressiveness and easy movement will be compelling foils to Osaka’s dictating power in a duel of youth and experience. Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam champion who has benefited from the hot, dry conditions, has been making statements in the fashion department all week. A win for Japan’s sporting talisman over Jović, the 18-year-old rising American, would be her biggest on-court one on clay in some time.
🎾 Men’s singles: Flavio Cobolli (10) vs. Learner Tien (18)
6 a.m. ET on HBO Max
A match of huge consequence in the newly Jannik Sinner-less half of the men’s draw. Tien’s secure floor, patient point construction and recently acquired affinity for clay make him a compelling pick to go deep. But the 20-year-old American will be tested by Cobolli. The 24-year-old Italian’s floor can be the opposite of secure, but his ceiling is orders of magnitude more devastating than Tien’s — and he loves playing on clay.
🎾 Men’s singles: Moïse Kouame (WC) vs. Alejandro Tabilo
9:30 a.m. ET on HBO Max
A veteran Grand Slam champion. A dangerous clay-courter with some interesting opinions. And now a fully rested Chilean who has beaten Novak Djokovic on clay. Kouame, the 17-year-old Parisian thrilling crowds with his shotmaking and his maturity beyond his years, is having himself a debut French Open. Tabilo received a walkover from Valentin Vacherot in the previous round, while Kouame won in five sets, from 5-3 down in the fifth. Will rhythm or rest carry the day?
🎾 Women’s singles: Coco Gauff (4) vs. Anastasia Potapova (28)
Not before 10 a.m. ET on TNT, HBO Max
A perilous assignment for the defending champion. Potapova is 16-4 on clay in 2026, and she earned those wins the hard way, by reaching the Madrid Open semifinals as a lucky loser and the Italian Open fourth round as a qualifier. Gauff didn’t drop a set in her first two matches, but she has dropped plenty of them during this clay swing, and this is her first real test of the tournament. Keep a close eye.
French Open women’s draw 2026
French Open men’s draw 2026
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