French Open Day 8: Ruthless Swiatek lays down a marker as she wins in 40 minutes
It took Iga Swiatek just 40 minutes to register a 6-0 6-0 victory over Anastasia Potapova to progress to the quarter-finals of the French Open.
The World No. 1 lost just ten points and faced no break points during her brief time on Chatrier this morning.
It was the quickest win of her career and the second shortest completed match at Roland Garros after Steffi Graf’s 32-minute victory over Natasha Zvereva in the 1988.
She now has won 13 6-0 sets in the 34 matches she’s ever played at Roland Garros.
“I was really focused and in the zone. I wasn’t looking at the score, so I continued working on my game,” Swiatek said after.
She made just two unforced errors and won 94% of points behind her first serve, holding to love five times.
It was a totally different story from her second-round match against fellow four-time slam winner Naomi Osaka, where she faced a match point before eventually clawing herself through in three long sets.
Victory in next Saturday’s final would make Swiatek the first woman since Justine Henin to win the French Open singles three times in a row.
She extends her winning streak to 16 matches on the clay this season, having won in both Madrid and Rome last month.
Potapova, the former Junior Wimbledon champion was totally outclassed and left the court just as quickly as she arrived.
Swiatek mentioned how the pair were rivals back in the juniors and reminisced about how tricky an opponent Potapova was.
“I had just a thought that times change a little bit,” Swiatek said. “I remember she was always the player to beat me. I don’t think I won against her, and I lost some heart-breaking matches.
“Like the semi-final of the Orange Bowl when I had match point, and I lost here when I had a pretty good tournament. We always played against each other, like, European championships or something.
Swiatek faces Wimbledon Champion Marketa Vondrousova in the quarter-finals – a head-to-head the Pole leads 4-0.
Relentlessly pursuing every ball and forcing her opponent into playing an extra shot, it was no surprise the young Russian hit 19 unforced errors.
The 23-year-old is establishing a similar reputation to that of Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros, with her ruthless, brutal ball striking appearing near impossible to disrupt.
US Open winner Coco Gauff was similarly time-efficient seeing off Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-1 6-2 to set up a quarter-final meeting with eighth seed Ons Jabeur, who beat Denmark’s Clara Tauson 6-4 6-4.
Gauff said that she had predicted a quick win from Swiatek and was preparing to get out quickly onto the court.
“I figured the match would probably go an hour and 15, an hour at the quickest. I definitely wasn’t expecting 40 minutes. But it didn’t really affect much because I kind of knew. You plan for the fastest-case scenario.”
