French Open diary day nine: Caroline Garcia gets her revenge on Alizé Cornet and Simona Halep dominates

We round-up the key stories and look ahead to tomorrow's action at Roland-Garros

We're now into the second week of the 2017 French Open (Getty)

The fourth round of the French Open concluded on Monday, on yet another day of high-drama.

Headlines in France this evening are dominated by Caroline Garcia’s grudge-match victory over Alize Cornet, after the pair had a very public falling out earlier this year over Garcia’s refusal to play in a Fed Cup tie.

British attention was meanwhile focused on Andy Murray, who played the talented youngster Karen Khachanov for a place in the quarter-finals.

Here, we round-up the ninth day of the second Grand Slam of the season.

We also preview Tuesday’s action.

Hero of day nine

There was more at stake than simply a place in the quarter-finals of the French Open when Caroline Garcia squared off against Alize Cornet on Court Philippe Chatrier on Monday afternoon.

Garcia pointed to her box after her straight-sets win (Getty)

This was personal. The pair had not been on speaking terms since a controversy surrounding Garcia's refusal to play in the Fed Cup this year, with Cornet and a number of her team-mates taking to Twitter to publically ridicule her decision.

However, after being mocked by Cornet as well as Kristina Mladenovic and Pauline Parmentier, it was Garcia who had the last laugh. She won 6-2 6-4 in a commanding performance, to reach the quarter-final stage of a Slam for the first time in her career.

The pair exchanged a frosty kiss at the net (Getty)

“It was a weird match, these matches are not fun to play. It was crucial to forget what surrounded the game," Garcia, who knelt and pointed at her box after the victory, said courtside after her win.

“I want to thank my team because they helped me get over what happened in the past few weeks.”

Upset of the day

There were no real upsets to speak of on day nine of the French Open – although World No 97 Veronica Cepede Royg went mighty close to causing one.

Plíšková had to dig deep to win in three (Getty)

The Paraguayan was given little chance of beating second seed Karolína Plíšková but stunned the Czech when she won the first set, despite having only ever played two Grand Slams before.

However Plíšková, who reached the final of last year’s US Open and the quarter-finals of this year’s Australian Open, battled back to win in three sets: 2-6 6-3 6-4. She will now play Garcia in the quarter-finals.

Performance of the day

Simona Halep is the bookies favourites to win her first Grand Slam at this year’s French Open and her dominant victory over Carla Suarez-Navarro only served to reinforce this view.

Halep blasted past the World No 16 with an extraordinary 6-1 6-1 win which lasted just over an hour.

Halep will be very tough to beat (Getty)

“I was expecting a tough game against a very good claycourt player,” Halep said afterwards.

“But I managed to push her back. “I feel very, very good now. I think I played the best match here in Roland Garros against Carla, which always was a tough match. And on clay I never won against her, so it was a really good match. I played exactly what I had to.”

Brit watch

All eyes were on Andy Murray on Monday, who claimed his 650^th Tour-level victory with a clinical 6-3 6-4 6-4 win against the talented young Russian Karen Khachanov.

Murray is making good progress in Paris (Getty)

Murray headed to Paris in poor form and feeling more than a little bit under the weather and was expected to struggle at Roland Garros, typically the Grand Slam where he most struggles.

But the World No 1 looks to be playing himself into some form, and beat Khachanov in just two hours and four minutes. He will now play Japan’s Kei Nishikori, the eighth seed, for a place in the semi-finals.

Quote of the day

“It was probably the coldest kiss of my life. But it was a kiss.”

Alize Cornet on the kiss she shared with Caroline Garcia at the end of their all-French grudge match. It’s fair to say they’re unlikely to be exchanging Christmas cards anytime soon.

Stat attack

As mentioned, Murray's 6-3 6-4 6-4 victory over Khachanov was the Briton' 650th tour-level match win. The three-time major champion has a 650-181 win-loss record for his career with a 78.2 winning percentage.

Tuesday’s order of play

(Singles only)

From 1pm UK time

Court Philippe Chatrier

Mladenovic v Bacsinszky
​Nadal v Carreno Busta

Court Suzanne Lenglen

Ostapenko v Wozniacki
​Djokovic v Thiem