The first week at Roland Garros ended much as it began, with rain interrupting much of the day. Torrential weather caused many technical problems around the grounds and sent tournament officials scrambling to move matches to alternate courts. However, the tournament stayed on course, since all scheduled singles matches were completed by day’s end.

Big Day for American Women

The Williams sisters and Madison Keys all advanced to join Shelby Rogers in the final 16 as a quarter of the remaining draw will consist of Americans.

After a thunderstorm interrupted play after the first set, Serena Williams was pushed in the second set but got by Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 7-6. It took a dramatic 12-10 tiebreak to conclude the two-set victory. Williams advanced despite 31 unforced errors, which left the world No. 1 critical of her performance.

“I think she played well. I feel like I made a tremendous amount of errors,” Williams said. “But I feel like she kind of forced me to. She forced me to go for it, and unfortunately, I wasn’t hitting great today.”

Meanwhile, Venus Williams pushed past Alize Cornet 7-6, 1-6, 6-0. The ninth seed won a tough tiebreak in the first set, only to see the Frenchwoman gain complete control in the second.  But Williams regained momentum in the deciding set, forcing her opponent into a bevy of errors. A frustrated Cornet gave very little resistance late. Williams found success attacking Cornet’s serve, breaking four times during the match.

Later, Keys made it a trifecta for the Americans with a 7-6, 6-3 win over Monica Puig. Keys used her power game to gain an advantage, acing the Puerto Rican nine times while benefiting from Puig’s 28 unforced errors. The 22-year-old could only come up with 17 winners to counter.

Keys has built off her success at Rome prior to the French Open and feels like time on the court has helped her game. “I definitely wanted to keep doing everything that I was really doing well in Rome,” she said. “Obviously I played really well there, and today I don't think I played extremely well all of the time. But being able to figure it out, I think that's where having a lot of matches really helped me.”

Other winners in the women’s draw included Timea Bacsinszky, Elina Svitolina, Carla Suarez Navarro, Yulia Putintseva, and Kiki Bertens.

Top Men’s Seed Rolls

There was some question as to whether Novak Djokovic would make it onto the court before darkness, due to the back log forced by the rain. But the world No. 1 made fast work of Aljaz Bedene 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 to advance.

The top seed took advantage of a big serving day in which he placed 71 of his 93 first serves into play. Meanwhile, he broke the British No. 2 seven times and controlled the tempo of the match from the beginning.

It was a race to complete the match before darkness for Djokovic, who stepped up his pace late. The Serb jogged in between points, hoping to finish play. Chair umpire Pascal Maria consented, and the match was allowed to continue until the end.

 With more rain in the forecast for Monday, Djokovic was happy to have completed the match. “I played very well, 6-2, 5-1, 30-love, and then I had a couple of long games where I didn't use my opportunities. But I closed out two sets pretty well. Started the third great, then the night show started. I dropped my serve, the games were very long, (umpire) Pascal (Maria) was on fire. He was coming down from his chair. We went deep into the night. I think we played to the maximum extent of time.”

Goffin Survives

Twelfth-seeded David Goffin survived a tight five-setter, advancing past Nicolas Almagro 6-2, 4-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. The Belgian’s steady play lured Almagro into 67 unforced errors, and he found inroads into his opponent’s serve, breaking seven times. Coming into the match, Goffin had implied that his confidence was rising, and he would need it as he was tested in the back-and-forth match. But in the deciding set, Goffin gained firm control again and closed out the match on an uptick.

Other winners in the men’s draw were David Ferrer, Dominic Thiem, Tomas Berdych, Roberto Bautista Agut, and Ernests Gulbis. Gulbis advanced when Jo-Wilfred Tsonga was forced to retire with a leg injury leading 5-2 in the first set of the match.