 Karolina Mukova vs Anastasia Pavliachenkova is the first quarterfinal for the ladies French Open for 2023. And both ladies were not supposed to get to this stage. Pavliachenkova entered the tournament with a protected ranking and would take on Fruvatova in the first round. There's no problem for her, winning in straight sets, 6-2-6-2. In the second round she'd take on the 15th seed Sampson over. And after dropping the first set, would fight back to win 4-6-7-5-7-5. In the third round she'd take on fellow Russian Potipova, who'd been very good this season. And again, after dropping the first set, Pavliachenkova would fight back to win 4-6-6-3-6-love. In the fourth round she'd take on the 28th seed Mertens, who had just taken out Pagula the number three seed in the previous round. And again, Pavliachenkova would go down a set, fight back to win 3-6-7-6-6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals. Mukova entered the tournament, unseeded, and would take on Sakuri the number eight seed in the first round. And after a close first set, Mukova would win in straights 7-6-7-5. In the second round she'd take on Potoroska. And after getting bagled in the second set, she'd take it out in 3-6-3-love 6-6-3. In the third round she'd take on this 27th seed Bogu. And again, an easy win for Mukova, getting through in straights 6-3-6-2. In the fourth round she'd take on the lucky loser Avanessian, who'd beaten Benchich along the way. But this was no problem for Mukova, getting through in straights 6-4-6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals. These two have played three times before, with Pavliachenkova leading the head to head 2-1. Their last match being two years ago at Wimbledon, Mukova getting the win. But their only clay court match being in favour of Pavliachenkova back in Madrid of that same year. If Pavliachenkova is going to win this one, she needs to get the first set. She's been coming back from a set down in her last three matches, and she is coming back from injury. So she needs to get that first set so she doesn't run out of steam when we get to a third set. Because the longer she plays these matches, the harder it's going to be, the more she wins. If Mukova is going to win this one, that first set is going to be crucial. But also she needs to be aggressive. She was so good against Sakurai, being aggressive and winning those close sets. She needs to win this first set and try and extend the match because we know that Pavliachenkova has had a lot of time on court. This is a very fun matchup with two players that we probably didn't expect. I mean Mukova has been good this year and Pavliachenkova has been here before. But in terms of unseated players, it's a very random quarter-final. I'm going to go with Mukova to win this one. I think Mukova has played less time on court, so I think it might help her in the end. And she's been so good this season, not just on the clay, but beforehand as well. But let me know down in the comments below who's going to win this quarter-final.