- World number one Iga Swiatek won the French Open in 2020, 2022 and 2023
- The Pole is the big favorite to achieve four victories at Roland Garros this year
- Swiatek reached the quarter-finals by beating Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
World number one Iga Swiatek reached the quarter-finals of the French Open on Sunday with a 6-0-6-0 victory over Russia’s Anastasia Potapova in 40 minutes.
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 game and gave the Russian no time to breathe between a series of points.
Potapova occasionally attacked Swiatek’s serve and claimed a pair of winners, but the Pole’s near-perfect shots left the Russian without answers as the top seed wrapped up the first set in 19 minutes.
The crowd inside Court Philippe-Chatrier did their best to cheer Potapova on, but Swiatek looked at ease and forced the Russian into several mistakes as the top seed consolidated her early break.
The only problem Swiatek had was the swirling wind during the serve, which finally left the roof open after several days of rain.
World number one Iga Swiatek reached the quarter-finals of the French Open on Sunday by beating Russian Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0 in 40 minutes
Swiatek eventually put Potapova out of her misery, and the Russian hurriedly left the court. Swiatek will face fifth seed Marketa Vondrousova or Serbian qualifier Olga Danilovic in the quarterfinals.
After her win, the Pole said: ‘It was the same, but I was just very focused and really in the zone and not really looking at the score.
“So I just played my game and worked on the things I wanted to work on, and it happened really fast, kind of weird.”
Swiatek’s victory also produced some eye-catching stats, such as the 23-year-old losing just 10 points in the match.
Meanwhile, she won without even a game point against her, as Potapova hit a forehand into the net on what was Swiatek’s first match point.
The victory inside 40 minutes is also the fastest completed main draw match at Roland Garros since Opta started collecting statistics in 2015.
Elsewhere, Swiatek became only the third player in history to achieve 6-0 6-0 wins at the French Open in consecutive years, joining Gabriela Sabatini (1992 and 1993) and Mary Pierce (1993 and 1994).
Swiatek is a three-time winner of the tournament and few would bet on her backing up her victories in 2020, 2022 and 2023 again this time.
MORE TO FOLLOW