French Open 2025 Day Eight Recap

The second Sunday in Roland Garros 2025 delivered another part of high quality matches, as men’s singles pull down to their last eight.

Lorenzo Musetti continued his strong clay form with a composite victory over Holger Rune under the lamps, Carlos Alcaraz noted his 100th tour level in an exciting four-set struggle against Ben Shelton, and Tommy Paul enjoyed a rare straight victory after two growing five-sets earlier in the tour.

Frances Tiefoe also advanced with a clinical performance over Daniel Altmaier and set up a quarter final collision with Musetti.

Here is a look at how the day developed at Terre Batte of Paris.

Day eight French open 2025 round of 16 results

Tommy Paul (12) Def Alexei Popyrin (35) 6-3 6-3 6-3

Tommy Paul reached Roland Garros-quarter finals for the first time on Sunday. The American had secured hard fought five victories over Marton Fucsovics and Karen Khachanov earlier this week, but cruised past Alexei Popyrin, who had not lost a set, 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 in just 1 hour and 52 minutes.

I think Alcaraz and Musetti have played the best tennis during the master, but Paul is not far behind, and I like the style of tennis he produces.

Today he saved 9 out of 10 break points, met 27 winners for Popyrins 18 and showed no signs of fatigue after his fight with Khachanov a couple of days ago.

I like it a lot. It was nice to have a straight victory today, give the body some rest. I mean, as much as I love five-sets, I definitely like the three-sets a little better. I’m just excited for more matches. Paul when he played on Clay.

Carlos Alcaraz (2)

Carlos Alcaraz secured his 100th victory at the turn level by defeating Ben Shelton 7-6 (8), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, in three hours and 19 minutes on the Court Philippe Chatrier.

With two explosive shooting makers at the court, of course, the match contained lots of dynamic gunshots and a little decent online game.

Alcaraz saved three set points in the first set of tie-break and sealed it with a whipped advance. He checked the second set with fast hands and redirected Shelton’s powerful images.

Shelton struggled back to win the third set, but Alcaraz regained momentum in the fourth to move on to his fourth straight Roland Garros-quarter finals.

I thought Alcaraz was playing a balanced match without the middle of the matches, and Shelton’s aggressive ground sticks tested him. The Spanjolen did a decent job of staying present and he took advantage of the American who had some decay in his service games to secure the victory.

Today I fought against myself, against the mind. I was just trying to calm myself down. In some moments I was angry, I was angry with myself. Don’t talk really good things but I’m really happy not to let these thoughts play against me. I tried to calm down and I tried to continue. That’s what I was trying. We have tremendous respect for each other. Every time we meet each other, we [bring] the top level. We played really good tennis and entertained the fans. He is a really powerful player, he can make all the shots. I think we played really good tennis. Coming to the web, dropping shots, previews. For me it is fantastic to have legs around. I think it’s great energy for the people and I love watching legs play. Alcaraz on his win.

Lorenzo Musetti (8) Def Holger Rune (10) 7-5 3-6 6-3 6-2

Lorenzo Musetti continued his dazzling clay court season with a well-deserved 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 over Holger Rune in 3 hours and 20 minutes.

The couple did not come to court until long after dark because of two long matches earlier in the day, but it was Musetti that enlightened the court with an elegant view of clay-court stone, and his judicial craft was too much for Rune to deal with.

I thought Musetti did an excellent job in the defense, some of his lobber was Murray-Esque, and he stole several points by forcing Rune to hit another ball.

It caused Rune to raise the unthreated errors, a total of 55, and Musetti was too solid, made very few mistakes and had an answer to almost everything Rune offered.

The Italian will meet Frances Tiefoe in the next round after the fifteenth seed took out Daniel Altmaier in straight sets.

French Open 2025 Day nine round of 16 matches