Tennis: No marathon this time as Swiatek sprints into French Open quarterfinals

AP , Sunday 2 Jun 2024

After the French Open marathon came the sprint.

Poland s Iga Swiatek
Poland s Iga Swiatek serves against Russia s Anastasia Potapova during their fourth round match of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros stadium in Paris. AP

Defending champion Iga Swiatek swept into the quarterfinals at Roland Garros in just 40 minutes after a crushing 6-0, 6-0 win against Anastasia Potapova.

Swiatek won without even facing a game point against her. The match ended when Potapova hit a forehand into the net on the first match point.

“I was just really focused and in the zone,” Swiatek said. “It went pretty quickly, pretty weird.”

Their match started at around 11 a.m.

That’s just eight hours after men’s defending champion Novak Djokovic finished his five-set, 4 1/2-hour marathon against Lorenzo Musetti at just after 3 a.m. in the latest finish in tournament history.

Swiatek remains on course for her third consecutive French Open title and fourth overall. The top-ranked Pole will play either fifth-seeded Czech Marketa Vondrousova or unseeded Serb Olga Danilovic in the quarterfinals.

They were playing Sunday on Court Suzanne Lenglen, the only other court with a roof. After five consecutive days with rain delays, play on the other roofless courts was scheduled to get underway at around 12:30 p.m. local time.

Later Sunday, third-seeded American Coco Gauff took on unseeded Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto.

Australian Open champion Jannik Sinner and two-time Grand Slam winner Carlos Alcaraz were in men’s fourth-round action.

Second-seeded Sinner faced Frenchman Corentin Moutet and third-seeded Alcaraz played No. 21-seeded Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.

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