Four-times champion Iga Swiatek of Poland swept aside Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina 6-1 7-5 on a windy day at the French Open on Tuesday to earn a semi-final spot and stay in the hunt for a record-breaking victory in Paris
The 24-year-old, who accepted a one-month doping ban late last year, is looking to become the first woman in the professional era since 1968 to win four consecutive titles in Paris.
Although she failed to win a title going into the French Open this season, she looks to have rediscovered her remarkable claycourt form in Paris.
She will next play world number one Aryna Sabalenka in a mouth-watering semi-final after the Belarusian beat China’s Zheng Qinwen in straight sets.
The Pole is now on a 26-match winning streak at the French Open, following her title three-peat between 2022-24 to add to her 2020 crown.
Swiatek, playing in an initially sparsely filled Philipp Chatrier stadium, broke the Ukrainian, in her fifth quarter-final appearance in Paris, early and kept her on the back foot with her heavy top-spin forehand and rapid changes in pace and direction.
Svitolina desperately tried to hang on but she could not match her opponent’s power in rallies, sending a forehand into the net to hand her another break as Swiatek bagged the set on her serve in the next game.
With her husband, French tennis player Gael Monfils, watching from the stands, Svitolina ignited hope among the crowd when she over 5-4 p in the second set.
Three unforced forehand errors in the next game, however, proved too many and Swiatek raced through the next three games to seal victory, firing three aces in the final game including one on match point.
Sinner sprints into quarterfinals with win over Rublev
Top seed Jannik Sinner cruised into his 11th career Grand Slam quarterfinal and third in Roland Garros with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 rout of No.17 seed Andrey Rublev.
This was Sinner’s 18th consecutive match win at a Grand Slam tournament. Sinner has dropped just 30 games in 12 sets in Paris so far — and by extending his winning streak at Grand Slam events to 18, the world No.1 has tied Andre Agassi, Boris Becker and Mats Wilander for the ninth-longest unbeaten run in the Open era.
Four more wins would secure him not only a first Roland-Garros title in the process, but sole possession of seventh place on that illustrious list. Sinner’s win also gives him sole possession of the most major victories for an Italian man in the Open era. Bidding for his own third Roland-Garros quarterfinal, and first since 2022, Rublev kept a first-strike mentality throughout the match — but was summarily dismissed by Sinner’s own strikes as the Italian wrapped up the first set in a half hour.
Sinner hit 25 winners in three sets, never lost serve in the two-hour match, and only faced one break point combined in the last two sets. That came at 2-2 in the third set, but Rublev couldn’t find the court with a backhand return off a second-serve — one of 39 unforced errors the No.17 seed totalled in the match. Sinner hit just 19, Roland Garros reports.
Sinner, who on Monday began his 52nd consecutive week at No. 1 in the ATP rankings, will next play Alexander Bublik, whom he leads 3-1 in their ATP Head2Head series. The World No. 62 Bublik earlier upset fifth seed Jack Draper to become the first Kazakhstani man to reach a singles Grand Slam quarter-final in history.