Andrey Rublev reaches French Open quarter-finals after Jannik Sinner retires with knee injury

Andrey Rublev made the quarter-finals of the French Open after Jannik Sinner retired with injury in the third set of their fourth-round clash.

Rublev was leading 1-6 6-4 2-0 when the Italian ended the match due to a knee problem.

Rublev, who had never made it past the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam, will next face either second seed Daniil Medvedev or Marin Cilic.

Sinner had won the previous two meetings against Rublev, including in Monte Carlo earlier this year, and raced through the opening set in just 29 minutes.

The Italian converted both break-point chances and took advantage of 11 unforced errors from Rublev.

But Sinner was then hampered by a knee issue during the second set and called for a medical time out. Neither played faced a break point until the 10th game when Rublev managed to break and win the set.

However, after being broken early in the third set Sinner pulled the plug due to the knee issue.

It is the second time this season Sinner has retired during a match, while he also pulled out of his Indian Wells last-16 clash with Nick Kyrgios due to illness.

Ruud beat Hubert Hurkacz 6-2 6-3 3-6 6-3 to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final.

“It feels great,” said the eighth seed. “It’s been one of the goals for me this year, to try and reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam.

“I don’t know why, but suddenly when I came here this year I felt a little bit more experienced playing five sets. I wasn’t able to play in Australia so Roland Garros was a big goal for me, especially this year.”

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