Iga Swiatek has fought her way to the quarterfinals of the French Open! The top seed at the Paris Grand Slam tournament defeated Kazakhstan's Jelena Rybakina 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the round of 16 on Sunday after significant early difficulties and will now face Elina Svitolina in the quarterfinals. Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen also struggled in her 7-6 (5), 1-6, 6-3 victory over Lyudmila Samsonova.
Swiatek maintained her chance to become the first player since Suzanne Lenglen (1920-1923) to triumph four times in a row at Roland Garros. But to do so, she needed a show of strength. The Pole dropped the first set 1-6 and was also trailing 0-2 in the second. After a closely contested match, she took a 3-2 lead, earned a break at love, and leveled the score. The deciding set offered plenty of tension before the favorite converted the second match point after 2:30. Thus, Swiatek remains undefeated at the French Open since her 2021 quarterfinal loss to Maria Sakkari.
Svitolina Remains with Fighting Spirit. The defending champion now surprisingly faces Switolina, who, as she has so often shown her fighting spirit and eliminated last year's finalist. The 30-year-old lost the first set 6-4 against Jasmine Paolini and was down 4-1 in the second before starting her comeback. She fended off three match points, converted her first set point to level at 1-1, and closed out the decider at 6-1. "I can't believe it." "I can't believe the match is over for me. I'm glad I stayed calm and fought until the end," said the Ukrainian, seeded 13th, who is paired with French crowd favorite Gael Monfils, to a standing ovation from the crowd.
Switolina had also won her duel with Paolini at the Australian Open, but the Italian had recently shown good form with a victory at the Masters 1000 tournament in Rome. Zheng in the round of 16 Zheng, who won Olympic gold on clay in Paris last year, had to battle with Samsonova. Against the Russian, seeded 19th, the Chinese lost the second set 1-6, but ultimately held on to the lead after 2:47. In the quarterfinals, she will face top-seeded Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, who won 7-5-6-3 against American Amanda Anisimova (No. 16).
