Swiatek has looked almost unstoppable on the clay at Roland Garros since 2020, when she took her first title. Since then, the 24-year-old has won the Grand Slam tournament in Paris three more times, in 2022, 2023, and 2024.
But it was really close to the Polish giant being defeated in the round of 16 against the 12th-seeded Jelena Rybakina. The former world number one was completely helpless in the first set, and lost 1–6.
Then she lost her serve directly in the second, and the Kazakh went away to 2–0 in the second.
But then the old usual Swiatek came back to life again. 0–2 became 6–3 and after an even third set, she finally managed to secure her spot in the quarterfinal.
It was tough. In the first set, it felt like I was playing against Jannik Sinner (world number one on the men's side) and she was really putting pressure on me. Honestly, I didn't have much hope left when she was playing so well, but I just kept fighting and I'm glad I did. I'm super happy, says Swiatek after the match.
In the quarterfinal, Elina Svitolina is now waiting, who knocked out last year's finalist Jasmine Paolini earlier on Sunday with 2–1 in sets. The final score was 4–6, 7–6, 6–1 to the Ukrainian.
It was much easier for world number one Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated Amanda Anisimova in straight sets, 7–5, 6–3.
