Iga Swiatek cranked up her pursuit of a third successive French Open crown on Sunday by storming into the quarter-finals with a 40-minute blitz, while Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner attempt to keep their title bids on track.
World number one Swiatek demolished Russia’s Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0 and will go on to play Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, the fifth seed who ended the run of Serbian qualifier Olga Danilovic in straight sets.
“It went pretty quickly,” said Swiatek, a red-hot favourite to lift the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen and become only the fourth woman to win four Roland Garros titles in the Open era.
“It felt the same but I was really focused and in the zone. I wasn’t looking at the score so I continued working on my game.”
The 23-year-old Pole’s quickfire victory came on the same Court Philippe Chatrier where men’s number one Novak Djokovic had completed his third round win at 3:07 a.m., the latest finish to a French Open match after more than four hours and five sets.
Swiatek, who saved a match point against Naomi Osaka in the second round, is looking to become just the second woman after Serena Williams to complete the clay-court treble of Madrid, Rome and French Opens in the same season.
US Open champion Coco Gauff faces a last-16 opponent who is embarking on her best run at a major in Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
The world number 51 has already taken down two seeds — Beatriz Haddad Maia and Liudmila Samsonova — to surpass her third-round displays from both Roland Garros and Wimbledon last year.
“I know she’s a fighter. She fights all the time. No matter what the score is, she’s not giving up until the last point. I know I have to go in there with a strong mentality,” said Gauff, the 2022 French Open runner-up.
Ons Jabeur is looking to turn the page on a miserable first half of the season, with a quarter-final showing in Madrid the only time heading into Roland Garros she had won multiple matches at a single event.
The Tunisian eighth seed, a three-time Grand Slam finalist, meets Denmark’s Clara Tauson for a spot in the last eight.
Alcaraz says he feels much more like himself after brushing aside 27th seed Sebastian Korda to make the last 16 in Paris for the third year running.
“I wanted to feel myself on court – I think I did that pretty well,” said Alcaraz, gunning for a third Grand Slam title after victories at Wimbledon and the US Open.
“I think I played really well – much better than my previous matches.”
The 21-year-old Spaniard made the semi-finals in Paris last year where he was defeated by eventual champion Djokovic.
Alcaraz’s next assignment is Canada’s Felix-Auger Aliassime, who is 3-2 against the world number three although the two men have never met on clay.
Second seed Sinner has yet to drop a set through three rounds and takes on the last remaining Frenchman in the draw, Corentin Moutet.
Australian Open champion Sinner has lost only two matches this year and will replace Djokovic as world number one if he reaches the final.
Sinner withdrew from Madrid with a hip problem and then skipped Rome, a precaution which appears to be paying off.
“I feel good. The hip at the moment feels good,” he said. “Me and my team, we made a very good job to be in the position to play here.”
Stefanos Tsitsipas, who lost the 2021 French Open final to Djokovic in five sets, plays Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi, the conqueror of Russian sixth seed Andrey Rublev.
AFP
