Four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek exited Roland Garros on Sunday as the top seeds continued to fall at the start of the second week, while Alexander Zverev booked his spot in the quarter-finals.
The Polish third seed endured a miserable 25th birthday as she went down 7-5, 6-1 to Madrid Open winner Marta Kostyuk.
Since winning Roland Garros in her second appearance at the tournament in 2020, Swiatek had never gone more than two years without hoisting aloft the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen, but after Aryna Sabalenka ended her bid to win a fourth consecutive French Open in the semi-finals last year, she has lost her unbeatable status on clay.
Photo: Reuters
Indeed, since last winning in Paris in 2024, Swiatek has only lifted three titles in the two subsequent seasons.
“It is harder a bit to handle stress for me in, like, [the] last year,” she said. “So I feel like today I felt off, you know, and I did mistakes that I didn’t want to do, and I wanted to play safe, but the ball flew everywhere. Suddenly these feelings came back, and I tried to work on it with my dialogue inside, but it was tough today. Yeah, so it all kind of went drastically down, and I played worse and worse.”
After breaking Kostyuk in the first set to edge 4-3 ahead, Swiatek’s serve totally deserted her and she failed to hold again as the Ukrainian hit back to claim the opener and then raced through the second set.
For Kostyuk, reaching a first quarter-final at Roland Garros was just the latest high mark in a fine clay-court season, in which she claimed the 250-level event in Rouen, France, as well as a first WTA 1000 title in the Spanish capital.
Elina Svitolina stands between her compatriot and the last four after she fought back to beat Swiss 11th seed Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.
After winning a first WTA 1000 title in eight years last month at the Italian Open, Svitolina’s last-eight encounter with Kostyuk pits against each other the two winners of the main warm-up events to Roland Garros.
“It’s exciting. Definitely she’s been playing really well,” Svitolina said of Kostyuk, who is on a 15-match winning streak on clay. “I feel like it’s going to be an exciting battle for Ukraine, as well, you know, that there will be one Ukrainian in the semis.”
Sorana Cirstea continued her remarkable renaissance during her farewell season on WTA Tour as the 36-year-old bested Chinese world No. 148 Wang Xiyu 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
The Romanian faces Russian eighth seed Mirra Andreeva in what will be her first quarter-final appearance at the French Open in 17 years.
Teenager Andreeva, who defeated 170th-ranked Jil Teichmann of Switzerland in straight sets, is targeting a second semi-final in three years at Roland Garros.
In the men’s singles, rising Spanish star Rafael Jodar has been no stranger to lengthy matches in his debut Roland Garros campaign, but the 19-year-old’s five-set win over fellow countryman Pablo Carreno Busta was even longer drawn out than it would otherwise have been as the heat wave that defined the first week subsided to rain, which caused brief delays in play.
Jodar battled back from two sets down to beat the 34-year-old 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
His next opponent is the prime contender to claim a maiden Grand Slam crown, German second seed Zverev.
The 29-year-old three-time major finalist eased through the fourth round with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-4, 6-1 win over 106th-ranked Dutch lucky loser Jesper de Jong.
Despite only dropping a set so far en route to an eighth quarter-final appearance at Roland Garros, Zverev refused to be drawn on the question of finally breaking his Grand Slam duck.
“I will focus on the matches that are ahead of me. This is the only thing that I can control,” he said. “I feel like I’m handling the situations quite well, and I will do everything possible to continue doing that.”
Joao Fonseca, Novak Djokovic’s conqueror in the last 32, felled another big name as he beat two-time French Open finalist Casper Ruud 7-5, 7-6 (10/8), 5-7, 6-2 in the night session to further confirm his arrival in the big time.
“I just try to be me on court, try to be happy, try to hit winners, try to hit good shots, try to be entertaining,” said Fonseca, who bludgeoned 51 winners.
The Brazilian teenager next takes on fellow first-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist Jakub Mensik, who battled past Andrey Rublev in five sets.
In the third round of the women’s doubles yesterday, Shuko Aoyama of Japan and Taiwan’s Liang En-shuo cruised past Eudice Chong of Hong Kong and Veronika Erjavec of Slovenia 6-1, 6-3.
They are due to face either 13th seeds Guo Hanyu of China Kristina Mladenovic of France or third seeds Elise Mertens Belgium and Zhang Shuai of China in the quarter-finals.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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