World No. 1 Iga Swiatek moved into the quarterfinals of the French Open with a 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Russia’s Anastasia Potapova in 40 minutes Sunday.
Third-seeded American Coco Gauff also had little trouble in her fourth-round match, beating unseeded Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-1, 6-2.
Potapova was playing in the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career, but Swiatek took full control of the play and gave the Russian no time to breathe between a flurry of points.
Swiatek won without even facing a game point against her and gave up only 10 points. 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.”
Swiatek became the first women’s player since Ana Ivanovic in 2008, and sixth overall, to win a match in the fourth round or later at the French Open without dropping a game, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Steffi Graf accomplished the feat in the 1988 final against Natasha Zvereva.
Potapova attacked Swiatek’s serve on the odd occasion to claim a couple of winners, but the Polish player’s near-perfect shots left her Russian opponent with no answers as the top seed wrapped up the first set in 19 minutes.
The crowd inside Court Philippe Chatrier tried their best to encourage Potapova, but Swiatek looked at ease, forcing the Russian player into several mistakes as the top seed consolidated her early break.
The only problem Swiatek had was the swirling wind on serve, with the roof finally left open after several days of rain.
Potapova attributed her crushing defeat to the constant rain delays in recent days sapping her energy.
“Unfortunately in the last couple of days I started feeling not well, eating not well. Last night I did not get an hour of sleep. It’s very tough, to be honest, especially when you want to play good you have to try to keep everything inside,” she said. “But unfortunately if you keep it inside it doesn’t go away, it just keeps growing. The stress inside my body kept growing, and unfortunately today was the day when it exploded.”
Gauff’s match began at a frenetic pace, with the 45th-ranked Cocciaretto winning only two points in the first four games on unforced errors. Cocciaretto regained some confidence at the end of the first set with longer rallies and a few winning shots, but Gauff kept the upper hand.
Gauff, who landed only 56% of her first serves, suffered a small…
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