Tennis

French Open: Iga Swiatek romps into 2nd week; Coco Gauff pips Mirra Andreeva!

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Iga Swiatek made a move into the fourth round of the French Open on a determined and dominant note on Saturday. The top seed who’s returning to the Major as the defending champion blitzed past Xinyu Wang 6-0, 6-0 in only 51 minutes.

Swiatek had needed some for herself to get through the opening sets in her opening two rounds against Cristina Bucsa and Claire. Against Wang, she seemed to have worked past through the hiccups that had dotted her performance in those two first sets.

The Pole didn’t face any break points in the match and converted six of nine break points on the Chinese’s serve. She finished with seven times as many winners as Wang’s three and had 11 unforced errors to her opponent’s 22.

Although Swiatek’s had several bagels to her credit at the French Open, this was the first match in which she notched two-bagel sets in Paris. In the fourth round, the 22-year-old will play either Bianca Andreescu or Lesia Tsurenko.

French Open: Coco Gauff comes to her own

The finalist to Swiatek’s winner in 2022, Coco Gauff, also entered the round-of-16. The sixth seed, however, had to find her way through the court against Mirra Andreeva before finishing with a 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-1 win after two hours and three minutes.

The all-teens’ clash saw both players struggle to outplay the other with her serve, in the first set. Twice, Andreeva went up a break and, on both occasions, Gauff broke back. The American was able to break her 16-year-old rival’s serve in the ninth game but was broken while trying to serve out the set. Eventually, in the tie-break, Andreeva whittled the 19-year-old’s game to take the lead in the match.

Gauff’s retaliation came swiftly as she reined in her shots better in the second set as compared to Andreeva who seemed to be inexplicably lost while selecting her shots. As Gauff came up with winner after another, errors flowed freely off the younger player’s racquet.

In the first set, Gauff faced four break points but she didn’t face any in the second and third sets. Another shot she was able to better was her serve. Gauff had six double faults for the match and all of these came in the opener. Andreeva, who also had six double faults for the match, finished with just one double fault in the first set and three and two respectively, in the second and third sets.

For a place in the quarter-finals, Gauff will now take on Anna Karolina Schmiedlova or Kayla Day.

Earlier, Elena Rybakina’s journey at the French Open came to an unexpected end. The Kazakh pulled out of her third-round match against Sara Sorribes Tormo before it was due to start. The fourth seed who spoke to the media later said that she’d been feeling unwell and sick and wasn’t feeling able to play as a result.

Photo Credit: French Open Twitter

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