Iga Swiatek of Poland reacts after scoring a point against her compatriot Magda Linette during the 3rd round of the women's singles match in the China Open tennis tournament at the Lotus Court in Beijing, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. Photo: AP
Swiatek raced into a 5-0 lead in the first set and snuffed out any hope of an unlikely comeback when she forced her fellow Pole to fire a forehand long.
The four-time Grand Slam champion then presided over a second-set masterclass, blitzing an exhausted Linette with an unrelenting salvo of mighty groundstrokes to wrap up the match in just over an hour.
Swiatek faces Ukraine's Anhelina Kalinina or the ninth seed Caroline Garcia of France next.
World number four Jessica Pegula crashed out with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat to Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko.
Ostapenko faces Liudmila Samsonova in the last eight after the Russian defeated Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 in a match that took nearly three hours.
(For more sports news and updates, follow Ahram Online Sports on Twitter at @AO_Sports and on Facebook at AhramOnlineSports.)
Short link: