Eight Americans are into the second week at Roland Garros for the first time in 40 years

There was already going to be a strong American presence in the second week of Roland Garros this year, with four making it through on Friday—but things have now escalated to historic.

With four more Americans making it through on Saturday, there will now be eight Americans into the second week of the clay-court Grand Slam for the first time in 40 years.

The last time this happened was in 1985.

None of this year’s eight Americans were even born until 1994.

This year’s eight Americans into the second week of Roland Garros include three men and five women.

All three men—Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe—advanced on Friday, and for all of them this is not only the first time they’ve reached the second week of Roland Garros, but they’ve now reached the second week at all four majors in their careers (this was the only one missing for all of them).

Amanda Anisimova, who reached the semifinals in Paris as a 17-year-old in 2019, also advanced on Friday.

Four more women—Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys and Hailey Baptiste—moved into the second week on Saturday. The first three have all been to at least the quarterfinals here, but for Baptiste, this is her first second week run at any major.

Keys was the last of the eight Americans to reach the second week and she did it in dramatic fashion, fighting off three match points serving at 4-5 in the third set to win an all-American, all-Australian Open champion clash with Sofia Kenin, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

And there’s guaranteed to be at least one American into the quarterfinals, as Keys and Baptiste will play each other next.

Flashback to 1985, and it was again three men and five women who made up the eight Americans into the second week here.

John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors and Aaron Krickstein were the three men, with Krickstein falling in the fourth round and McEnroe and Connors eventually reaching the semifinals.

Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Terry Phelps, Bonnie Gadusek and Debbie Spence were the five women, with Gadusek and Spence falling in the fourth round, Phelps reaching the quarterfinals and Navratilova and Evert both reaching the final—where Evert won the sixth of her record seven titles in Paris.

That was almost nine years before any of the eight Americans through to this year’s second week were even born—Pegula and Keys were the first of the group to be born, in 1994 and 1995.