After dismantling home favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in ridiculously ruthless fashion, Novak Djokovic will look to keep his hopes of clinching his first French Open title alive when he takes on Milos Raonic.
Djokovic was just plain unstoppable against Tsonga, who had no answer to the Serbian's ability to just crank it up in the big stage. Next up for the world number two is Raonic, who was impressive in his straight-set victory over Marcel Granollers in the fourth round on Sunday.
Raonic gave Djokovic a scare in their last meeting at the Rome Masters, and Djokovic is expecting more of the same at the Philippe Chatrier come Tuesday – big booming serves, which, when on target, are near impossible to return.
"Milos is playing the tennis of his life," Djokovic said after his thumping of Tsonga. "He's top-10 now, an established top-10 player. He has one of the best serves in the world. Very powerful, very precise.
"When he serves that well, there is not much you can do, really. He puts a lot of pressure on his opponent and he has improved a lot from the baseline now. With his backhand, he's hitting down the line, he's very aggressive, which he should be, of course, for somebody of his height and his build.
"He's powerful and he uses that serve. Forehand is also very good from back of the court. So there is an evident improvement in his game and he feels more confident on the court. You can feel that. The recent match we had in Rome was very close."
Raonic became the first Canadian in the Open era to enter the quarterfinals with his victory over Granollers, and the big-serving right-hander has no plans on settling for that achievement. "I'm very eager and I'm looking forward to that [match against Djokovic]," Raonic said. "Especially after two weeks ago, to be putting myself in that situation to get to play him again."
In the second men's quarterfinal, to be played at the Suzanne Lenglen, Ernests Gulbis will look to take the confidence of beating Roger Federer into the match against Tomas Berdych.
The Latvian pulled off his "biggest win" by outlasting Federer in a tense five-setter to book his place in the quarterfinals for just the second time in his career. The last time he played in the last-eight of a Grand Slam was also at Roland Garros, with that match ending in a defeat to Djokovic.
Gulbis will hope for a happier ending against Berdych. "It's the biggest win of my career," the outspoken 25-year-old said in a courtside interview after his win over Federer on Sunday. "I've been playing very well in France. I won tournaments in Marseille and Nice, hopefully Paris is the next one.
"For my confidence and just for me as a tennis player, a five-set win over Roger Federer, it's really big. Hopefully it's going to change me that I become more confident about myself, you know, on a tennis court."
Berdych will also come into the quarterfinal match full of confidence after easing past the big American John Isner in straight sets. The Czech reached the semifinals of the Australian Open earlier this year, and will be determined to at least match that effort at the French Open as well.
Where to Watch Live:
Djpkovic vs Raonic is scheduled to be played at Philippe Chatrier while Berdych vs Gulbis will be played at the Suzanne Lenglen. The men's quarterfinals will start after the respective women's last-eight matches, which begins at 2 pm local time (5.30 pm IST). Live coverage in India will be on Neo Sports and Neo Prime. International viewers, including India, can catch the action via live streaming HERE or HERE. Listen to the action HERE. Viewers in the US can live stream the matches HERE or HERE, while South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa viewers can catch the action HERE. The matches can be live streamed by UK viewers HERE.