French Men's Grand Slam Drought Likely to Stretch On MELBOURNE, Australia -- Though the tournament is as multinational as ever, the most commonly shared tongue between the final 16 players left in the 2013 Australian Open men's singles was a true lingua franca. Four French men made the round of 16, the most of any country in the men's draw. Russia led the pack on the women's side with five. But unlike the Russian women, who were evenly divided across the draw, the four remaining French men -- Jeremy Chardy, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Gilles Simon and Richard Gasquet -- were all on the bottom half of the singles draw, and thus all in action Monday. Chardy opened the day with a victory for France, consolidating up his third-round upset of No. 6 seed Juan Martin del Potro with a four-set win over No. 21 seed Andreas Seppi. This required coming back from an early malaise sparked by a knee injury to win, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2, and reach his first Grand Slam quarterfinal. With his big serve and powerful forehand, Chardy plays a more straightforward brand of tennis than his compatriots, and he had little difficulty with Seppi once finding his range in the second set. Chardy, ranked 37th, was asked after his victory if his run in Melbourne might bring him some of the attention normally reserved for his higher-ranked countrymen. "We have many good players," he said. Jo and Richard play better than me before. So now I have to play more solid and to have many big wins to be like them. So, no, for me I don't care about this. I just play. I practicing in academy and stay focused on my tennis, and outside I don't care. Chardy did, however, equal Gasquet in one category Monday: number of Grand Slam quarterfinals reached. Chardy, who made the fourth round once before in the 2008 French Open, reached the quarterfinals in his second advance this far. Gasquet, in contrast, as reached the round of 16 an impressive 15 times but has found this round to (which is called the huitièmes or "eighths" in French) to be his undoing. He has won it only once. Gasquet lost in this stage of all four Grand Slams in 2012, and added his latest defeat Monday with a four-set loss to Tsonga, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. Gasquet's lone career fourth-round win came at Wimbledon 2007, when he beat a wild card ranked 110th. That wild card was Tsonga. Gasquet would also go on to win his ensuing quarterfinal, 8-6 in the fifth set, against then third-ranked Andy Roddick, meaning that his career Slam quarterfinal record is a much more pristine, if puny, 1-0. The last Frenchman on the day's docket, Gilles Simon, was the one given the least chance of advancing. After a brutal third-round win over another Frenchman, Gael Monfils, left him barely able to walk and unable to attend his post-match news conference Saturday night, Simon was little match for United States Open champion Andy Murray, meekly falling 6-3, 6-1, 6-3. "It was a painful hour and a half on the court," Simon said of the rout. But, you know, Andy is anyway a very good player, so it's always hard to beat him. Without being 100 percent you have almost no chance to do it. That Murray should have become such an immovable object for the French marks a changing of the tennis landscape in recent years. With Murray's Open victory last September ending the generations-long British drought, France now has the longest men's dry spell of any of the four Grand Slam nations, having not had a men's singles champion since Yannick Noah won the 1983 French Open. Thanks to Amelie Mauresmo, who won two Slams in 2006, French women have a much brighter recent history. But unlike Great Britain, which had a dearth of contenders outside of Murray, Tim Henman, and Greg Rusedski, there has been a revolving door of Frenchmen reaching the Top 10. Of active players, Monfils, Simon, Gasquet, and Tsonga have all spent time in the Top 10, though only Tsonga and Gasquet remain currently. The ranks of recently retired former Top10 players includes Sebastien Grosjean, Arnaud Clement, Cedric Pioline, and Guy Forget. But none have ever come close to being considered a favorite to win a Grand Slam, and with Chardy next to play Murray and Tsonga facing Federer, there is little reason to think that this is their moment, either.