French tennis fans had four good reasons for optimism ahead of Wimbledon 2017 with four seeded countrymen taking part: 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 14th seed Lucas Pouille, 15th seed Gael Monfils and 22nd seed Richard Gasquet. But now they will be feeling pretty miserable as they only have one representative left in the draw – unseeded Adrian Mannarino – after Tsonga and Monfils today followed Pouille and Gasquet out of the tournament.

Tsonga found himself in the awkward situation of serving immediately at 5-6 down in the fifth and deciding set of his match with Sam Querrey after they were unable to finish it last night due to bad light. On this occasion, the pressure was too much for the Frenchman to handle as he dropped serve to hand his American opponent the win.

The overall score was 2-6 6-3 6-7 6-1 5-7 and the World No.12 was unsurprisingly upset to lose. He said, “I’m frustrated, of course, because I was short. I wish I could have won this one. Maybe I won more points than him in this match, but that's tennis. I know how it works. I think he dealt pretty well with his serve, played well and took his opportunities.”

For Monfils, it was a case of more of the same as he struggled at Wimbledon yet again. The World No.13 has never made it past the third round at SW19 and today he lost 6-7 6-4 7-5 3-6 2-6 to compatriot Mannarino – a player who very few observers expected to see in the last 16. The last Frenchman standing may not be around much longer either as he will now face Novak Djokovic.

The Serb had very little trouble winning his third-round match against Ernests Gulbis. He beat the Latvian 6-4 6-1 7-6 and said afterward, “Gulbis is very unpredictable, has a huge serve and is very powerful with a fast game from the back of the court. It's not easy to play against him on this surface. I'm really pleased that I managed to win in straight sets, especially in the third set where he started serving better with a higher percentage of first serves. He kind of gave it a last shot. I thought he played good quality tennis. But I managed to hang with him and play a very good tiebreak. I think that only can boost my confidence level for whatever is coming up next.”

Roger Federer also made reaching the fourth-round look like an easy task as he glided serenely to a 7-6 6-4 6-4 victory over Mischa Zverev. The Swiss is pleased that all the Big Four are still in the tournament. He said, “I think it's great. I'm not that surprised because I thought that everybody this week was going to find their form, especially speaking about Andy and Novak. So, I thought they did it very well. With me, I hoped I was going to be there. Whereas with Rafa's confidence, I thought he was also going to be there.”

And it was not just members of the Big Four who progressed comfortably on day six. Dominic Thiem brushed aside young American Jared Donaldson 7-5 6-4 6-2, Alexander Zverev motored to a 6-4 6-4 6-2 victory over Sebastian Ofner, Milos Raonic dispatched Albert Ramos-Vinolas 7-6 6-4 7-5 and Tomas Berdych beat David Ferrer 6-3 6-4 6-3. Grigor Dimitrov was also hurtling towards a straight sets win after winning both the first two sets 6-1 against opponent Dudi Sela, who was forced to retire at that point with a thigh injury.

It all sets up some very interesting last-16 clashes in the bottom half of the men’s draw. Federer versus Dimitrov is the pick of the ties, while Raonic versus Zverev is also an intriguing prospect. Thiem versus Berdych has the potential to be a good match too, while Djokovic may have some tricky moments against Mannarino but should win relatively comfortably.