French Open 2018, Day 8 highlights: Novak Djokovic storms into quarter-final; Alexander Zverev beats Karen Khachanov

Paris: French Open headlines and sidelines on Sunday, the eighth day of the 2018 tournament: Headlines [caption id=“attachment_4494945” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Serbia’s Novak Djokovic will face Marco Cecchinato in quaters. AFP[/caption] Djokovic into 12th Roland Garros quarter-final; World 72 Cecchinato grabs shock last-eight place Zverev in first quarter-final at majors Sidelines Sloane wants Federer challenge US Open champion Sloane Stephens has seen Maria Sharapova hit with Rafael Nadal in Rome. Now she wants to take on Roger Federer after jokingly being snubbed by Nadal. “It’s, like, Rafa. You have to do more. He was kidding, but, still… I was, like – one day, I’m going to one-up her and hit with Fed, take Fed on grass. I’ve got to one-up her, I’ve got to. I’m going to start asking soon.” Show-stopping Nadal Rafael Nadal proved to be a show stopper again at the French Open on Sunday when fans spotted the 10-time champion high above Court Philippe Chatrier conducting an interview with French TV. So many fans rose to applaud the world number one that the last-16 tie between Dominic Thiem and Kei Nishikori was briefly held up. Sunday was also Nadal’s 32nd birthday. Scream and shout – Barbora Strycova wasn’t pleased with Yulia Putintseva after the Kazakh knocked her out in the third round 6-4, 6-3. The Czech 26th seed took exception to Puntintseva’s screaming on the court, accusing her of gamesmanship. “I think she needs it for her game. And she kind of does it on purpose to get the opponent out of the rhythm. She screams sometimes hard and sometimes for the balls where I’m like, ’this is just weird’.” Toni warns of danger Toni Nadal, the uncle and former coach of the defending champion, saw his nephew’s fourth round opponent Maximilian Marterer up close in his junior days. “A few years back, there was a junior tournament organised in Stuttgart to discover ’the next Boris Becker’ and he won it,” Toni told rolandgarros.com. “He’s made a lot of progress and is a difficult opponent because he hits the ball very hard and allows little rhythm. He serves well. He doesn’t control the rallies very well but he plays very quickly.” Who’s saying what “Actually, during treatment yesterday I had Sloane on and was living and dying on every point in the end. I saw her in the locker room, and I was, like, ‘God you made me nervous at the end’. She was, like, ‘you were nervous?’” Madison Keys on close friend and US Open champion Sloane Stephens after her third round come-from-behind win against Camila Giorgi. “What match?” Keys joking she knows nothing of Monday’s mouthwatering tussle between Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. “I’m expecting another five-set match. I’ll get myself ready for that.” Alexander Zverev on his quarter-final clash against Dominic Thiem after having played three successive five-setters to reach this stage. Numbers up 34 – season-leading wins for Alexander Zverev after defeating Karen Khachanov 200 – clay court match wins for Novak Djokovic