Roland-Garros 2023: the program, the favorites, the number, the player to follow... this Wednesday

The program, from 11am: Beatriz Haddad Maia (BRA, 14)-Ons Jabeur (TUN, 7); Iga Swiatek (POL, 1)-Coco Gauff (USA, 6); Alexander Zverev (GER, 22)-Tomas Martin Etcheverry (ARG). Not before 20:15: Holger Rune (DEN, 6)-Casper Ruud (NOR, 4).

To discover

• Roland Garros Men's Singles
• Roland Garros Women's Singles

Favorites: Iga Swiatek, the world No. 1 quickly dispelled the doubts that could surround her physique, after her injury in Rome. Four times, she has signed "bagels" and arrives fresh (she benefited from the abandonment of the Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko in the 8th final). In a remake of the 2022 final of the France International, she will meet Coco Gauff for a place in the last square. Unfortunate finalist in 2022, Casper Ruud (No. 4) has an appointment in the quarterfinals (as last year) with Holger Rune (No. 6). The match promises sparks.

The player worth a look: Tomas Martin Etcheverry. When he was 10, his parents asked him to come up with a name for the newly arrived dog in the family. It would be: "Roland-Garros" and, this year, the dog follows on television the exploits of the Argentine in the International of France. Etcheverry (23; 49th in the world, beaten in the final in Bordeaux by Ugo Humbert just before Roland-Garros) had, before Roland-Garros, won only one Grand Slam match. Etcheverry, a true clay specialist, who takes over from Schwartzman and Del Potro the last Argentine quarterfinalists at Roland-Garros, will face Alexander Zverev.

The figure: 1. The first quarter-final at Roland-Garros for Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia, Tunisia's Ons Jabeur and Argentina's Tomas Martin Etcheverry.

The anecdote: On 7 June 2003, Justine Henin became the first Belgian to win a Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros by beating her compatriot Kim Clijsters in the final. The 21-year-old Walloon, who had created the feat in the semifinals by defeating the defending champion Serena Williams, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, faced in the final the Flemish Kim Clisters, under the eyes of the King and Queen of Belgium. Clijsters missed the point, crunched in 68 minutes (6-0, 6-4) by Henin who offered the first of his four Roland-Garros and dedicated his coronation to his mother who died eight years earlier.

The expression. Tweener: It became one of the most spectacular shots on the circuit. The lobbed players managing to unleash, back to the net, a shot between the legs. Guillermo Vilas would have been the first to direct it. A move that Yannick Noah or Roger Federer, in particular, have helped to make famous and that players have fun to achieve to the delight of spectators, viewers and broadcasts on social networks.