Friday is quarter-final day at the Open 13 Provence. After the first doubles semi-final, and not before 3pm, the singles day will start with a real challenge for Frenchman Benjamin Bonzi who, for his very first quarter-final on the main circuit, will be confronted with Russian Aslan Karatsev, the number 4 seed of the tournament. "The Frenchman knows that he will get some "missiles" from the 2021 Australian Open semi-finalist, but he also knows that the Russian will also make a lot of mistakes. The Frenchman will have to be patient and also succeed in imposing his game. Otherwise, the match could quickly turn in favour of the man with the giant calves...
After the Russian seeded 4, it will be the turn of the Russian seeded 2: Andrey Rublev. The world number 7, who is pumped up after his victory over Richard Gasquet, will enter the court with a lot of confidence. Lucas Pouille, slightly tired after his two consecutive three-set matches, will have to pull out all the stops to destabilise the most "rock'n'roll" of tennis players.
The first match of the evening will pit the tournament's number one seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas, against Russian qualifier Roman Safiullin. The latter, a friend of Daniil Medvedev who played very well at the ATP Cup earlier this year, will have his work cut out against the man who has won twice in Marseille (2019 and 2020). And given the performance of Tsitsipas against Gaston, Safiullin can really have something to worry about.
The final match of the day will pit the No. 3 seed and winner of last week's Rotterdam tournament, Felix Auger-Aliassime, against Ilya Ivashka. The Belarusian, seeded fifth, reached the semi-finals in Marseille in 2018 after qualifying. The problem is that he will be facing a player who is on a roll and who, for that matter, did not reach the semi-finals but the final in 2020!
Quite a programme! And if the logic is respected, we could find the top seeds 1, 2, 3 and 4 in the last four.
