World No. 1 Iga Swiatek on Thursday extended her clay-court winning streak to 18 matches by defeating Gabriela Lee 6-3, 6-2 to advance to the quarter-finals at the Poland Open.
The 21-year-old Pole has not lost on clay since last year’s French Open quarter-finals. She improved to 48-4 this season.
The two-time French Open champion produced a dominant display, hitting 25 winners while saving the single break point she faced.
Photo: EPA-EFE
She next plays fifth seed Caroline Garcia, who advanced with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
Eighth seed Petra Martic also reached the quarter-finals after a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Maja Chwalinska, while 10th seed Jasmine Paolini overcame Clara Burel 6-1, 6-7 (1/7), 6-0.
Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland wasted a 5-3 lead in the opening set before rallying to defeat Kristina Mladenovic 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, 6-1.
Lucky loser Kateryna Baindl of Ukraine made the last eight after Sara Errani retired in the second set because of a lower back injury. Baindl was ahead 6-2, 3-0 when her Italian opponent pulled out of the contest.
PRAGUE OPEN
AP, PRAGUE
Top seed Anett Kontaveit on Thursday advanced the quarter-finals at the Prague Open after a 6-4, 6-3 victory over 17-year-old Lucie Havlickova.
Kontaveit broke the Czech wild card, who won the French Open junior title this year, at 3-3 in the second set and won the next two games.
The second-ranked Estonian, who made the final at last week’s Hamburg European Open, next faces Anastasia Potapova after the seventh-seeded Russian overcame China’s Lin Zhu 6-4, 7-6 (10/8).
Lucky loser Nao Hibino of Japan stunned defending champion Barbora Krejcikova by rallying to a 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3 victory to improve her record to 2-0 against the second-seeded Czech for her third career top-20 win.
Krejcikova, last year’s French Open champion, failed to served out the match at 5-3 in the second set.
In another upset, 17-year-old Czech Linda Noskova beat fifth seed Alize Cornet of France 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (9/7) to reach her first career WTA Tour quarter-final.
Noskova won the junior title at the French Open last year.
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