It's misery for defending champion Garbine Muguruza

Bacsinszky opened up a 4-0 lead in the third set before wrapping up the match.

Mladenovic played her part in the noise, repeatedly shouting 'Forza!' [an Italian rallying cry] while she also revved the crowd up on multiple occasions.

The Spaniard stormed off court wagging her finger at the vocal crowd, while Mladenovic celebrated nearly as if she had won the tournament, running to shake hands with French federation president Bernard Giudicelli.

Muguruza has been trying to reprise the punishing baseline hitting that carried her to this title previous year, but she kept botching the final putaway.

Home favourite Kristina Mladenovic underlined her status as the dark horse to win the French Open title this week after defeating defending champion Garbine Muguruza 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 yesterday to reach the quarter-finals.

Bacsinszky beat 13th-seeded Mladenovic 6-4, 6-4 in a match which was twice delayed by rain.

The 24-year-old tweaked her back on the eve of the tournament and has struggled on serve ever since. Despite 16 double-faults, the Frenchwomen was able to pull the upset after the heavy backing of the home crowd. Its all behind me now, so whatever happens in this tournament is not necessarily my concern anymore.”.

A reigning Roland Garros doubles champion, Mladenovic is now making a play for the singles title by producing her best clay-court season of her career. "I speak five languages and finished high school [but] she stopped her studies". Djokovic is the defending champion. "It's something I'm prepared for", the 13th seed said ahead of Sunday's match.

Canada's Milos Roanic saw his French Open run come to an end in the fourth round on Sunday.

The last repeat women's champion at Roland Garros remains Justine Henin, who won the tournament three consecutive years from 2005-07.

"Everything wasn't ideal. There were a few concerns", Mladenovic said, before joking: "I made about 35 double-faults today, but everything's [okay]!"

"But when you go out there, this is something I don't want to think about and just fight with everything I have".

Bacsinszky is obviously the more experience player in these type of matches and has had to work less to get to this point.

Kuznetsova, who won the 2009 French Open and 2004 U.S. Open, was ousted by two-time major runner-up Caroline Wozniacki 6-1, 4-6, 6-2, and Stosur, the 2011 U.S. Open champion, was eliminated by 19-year-old Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. A good clay-court season, thanks to the sheer number of balls hit and points played, often translates into success further down the line. There are very few girls who can claim that.

"You make me cry", she continued. "Honestly, no, I don't think it was unsportsmanship or unfair or anything". "I'm sure that when we go to the United Kingdom to play, they will do a great job, too".

- Croatia's Petra Martic will face women's fifth seed Elina Svitolina in the fourth round after beating 17th seed Anastasija Sevastova 6-1 6-1.

Nadal, who turned 31 on Saturday and celebrated with two cakes, will next face another Spaniard, Pablo Carreno Busta, for a place in the semi-finals.