9th seed Venus Williams, a finalist at the French Open in 2002 takes on 8th seed Timea Bacsinszky, last year's semifinalist, in the fourth round of the French Open in what should be the match of the day on the women's side of the draw.

Williams is rolling back the years as she is in the fourth round of the French Open for the first time since 2010 and is looking for a spot in the quarterfinals of the tournamentfor the first time since 2006.

Bacsinszky is also going from strength-to-strength at the French Open. The Swiss number two dispatched a fellow former semifinalist, Eugenie Bouchard in the second round.

Williams has lost in the first round or second round from 2012-2015 and it is good to see an improvement from the former world number one.

How they got here

Williams' progression to the fourth round of the French Open has been impressive. The seven-time Grand Slam champion defeated Anett Kontaveit in two tiebreakers in the first round.

In the second round she crushed her younger compatriot Louisa Chirico 6-2, 6-1. Chirico reached the semifinals at the Mutua Madrid Open and many people thought that Williams would lose to Chrico. In the third round on Court Suzanne Lenglen Williams defeated Frenchwoman Alize Cornet 7-6, 1-6, 6-0.

Bacsinszky's passage through to the fourth round of the French Open has been a lot easier than her opponent. The 2015 semifinalist hasn't dropped a set en route and she defeated lucky loser Silvia Soler Espinosa 6-1, 6-3 in the first round. Then, she recovered from 3-0 down in the first set, to take it 6-4 against Eugenie Bouchard and Bacsinszky almost blew a 5-0 lead in the second set but managed it 6-4 too in the second round.

Bacsinszky also defeated a Frenchwoman in the third round and it was Pauline Parmentier very easily 6-4, 6-2.

Bacsinszky in action against Parmentier on Day 7 of the French Open (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Bacsinszky in action against Parmentier on Day 7 of the French Open (Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Their history

Williams and Bacsinszky have played each other only twice and Williams hasn't dropped a set against the Swiss star. Their first meeting was in the second round of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing which Williams won 6-3, 6-2. They next met in the second round of the US Open in the Arthur Ashe Stadium during the night session which Williams won 6-1, 6-4 but from that match you could tell that Bacsinszky was on her way back up the rankings.

Who wins

This is a very close match to call as Bacsinszky is a better clay court player than Williams and Bacsinszky could use the drop shot as Williams isn't a good mover on clay.

Williams will want to get some cheap points on her first serve and keep the points short and not get drawn out in a long rally as a physical battle isn't good for Williams.

According to the live WTA rankings, Williams is ranked at nine and Bacsinszky will drop out of the top ten to number 14 as she is defending semifinalist points.

This match is the final match on Court Philippe-Chatrier but it could get moved to a different court depending on the weather and how long the three matches preceding this match take.

The winner of this match will face Kiki Bertens or 15th seed Madison Keys in the quarterfinals.

Prediction: Bacsinszky in two sets.

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