Follow The Athletic’s French Open coverageWelcome to the French Open briefing, where The Athletic will explain the stories behind the stories on each day of the tournament.On Day 6, a player in her final season kept rolling, there was an optical illusion for one player, and the men’s new generation made a mark.Another milestone for a player bowing out?There was another milestone for Sorana Cîrstea on Friday, as she became the oldest player to dish out a double bagel at a Grand Slam. Cîrstea is playing her last year on the tour, aged 36, and at the French Open she hammered world No. 68 Solana Sierra 6-0, 6-0 to reach the fourth round and continue what’s been a stellar farewell season.A season that has seen Cîrstea win the Transylvania Open in Romania, her home country, at the Transylvania Open, beat a world No. 1 for the first time (Aryna Sabalenka at the Italian Open earlier this month), and crack the world’s top 20 for the first time. In the live rankings for points accumulated this year, she is at No. 11, giving her a chance of making the WTA Finals for the world’s best eight players. Which would be an astonishing ending to a farewell year that barely caused a tremor when she announced it at the back end of 2025.Cîrstea showed no mercy against Sierra and will next face the qualifier Wang Xiyu in the fourth round, giving her a very presentable chance of reaching a third Grand Slam quarterfinal.“What I’ve seen this season that I feel is different is the consistency,” Cîrstea said in a news conference after beating Sierra. “I’ve been able to perform at the same level week in, week out, which maybe in the past it wasn’t the case, but again, I’m very, very grateful with everything that’s happening, I’m very grateful that all the work is paying off and I absolutely love tennis, and it’s a joy to be here.”— Charlie EccleshareWhich tradition did Roland Garros copy from the Olympics?Two years after Roland Garros played host to the tennis tournament at the Paris Games, the French Open is taking some cues from the Olympics.Tennis players can now collect and trade pins like Olympians. But instead of the baubles representing country delegations as they do during the Games, Roland Garros created French Open-themed pins, including a panama hat and a tennis ball. Players can pick up a pin for whichever draw they’re in — singles, doubles, wheelchair, mixed doubles — then one pin for each round they win.Mirra Andreeva might be the biggest pin fan in the tournament. The 19-year-old arrived at her news conference after beating No. 27 seed Marie Bouzková of the Czech Republic 6-4, 6-2, with pins halfway up her credential.“They said that I could get three different pins a day. … I took all of them, everything that they had already,” Andreeva said.The teenager was excited to get to participate in the fad after missing out during the Paris Games. Andreeva won the silver medal in women’s doubles alongside Diana Shnaider but, like many tennis players, didn’t live in the athletes’ village.“I was not able to exchange pins with other athletes, but the physios in the locker room also gave me some pins,” Andreeva said. “Then I saw players here in the locker room, they gave me some, I gave them some. So from Olympics I also have full credential with different kinds of pins.”Andreeva, it may be obvious, is a pro at this — she collected stickers as a child.— Ava WallaceHow did the frazzling start to the tournament continue?The baking-hot weather during opening week has frazzled everybody, leading to long matches, zombified players and an overwhelming feeling of carnage.Friday was just as hot — but the drama kept coming from ever more unlikely places: