Tennis

Ruthless Iga Świątek delivers 6-0, 6-0 demolition job at French Open

It was the shortest completed match of Świątek’s career with Anastasia Potapova winning just 10 points

Poland's Iga Świątek during her women's singles round against Anastasia Potapova on day eight of the French Open. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/Getty Images
Tumaini Carayol at Roland Garos
Sun Jun 02 2024 - 21:37

After an opening week defined by Iga Świątek’s grit, as she saved match point and recovered from the brink of defeat against a resurgent Naomi Osaka in her second-round match, the Pole’s bakery reopened with ruthless efficiency on Sunday as the best player in the world demolished Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0 to return to the quarter-finals of the French Open.

Even in matches with such emphatic scorelines, the final result is not always reflective of how competitive some can be. Sometimes the games are tight and competitive but the superior player just wins all of the points that matter.

This was not one of those matches. Across only 40 minutes, Świątek completely destroyed the 41st-best female tennis player in the world. It was the shortest completed match of Świątek’s career and Potapova won only 10 points. The Russian did not contest a deuce game and the closest she came to winning was at 30-30 in the second game. It was about as dominant a win as can be seen at grand slam level.

“Comfortable,” Świątek said, describing what it feels like to be in the zone. “You just go with it because there’s no point of changing anything. You just continue what you’ve been doing and what has been working. But, honestly, I was always focusing on the next point. I didn’t really look at what happened before. So that was probably also why I could be efficient.”

READ MORE

This is the fourth consecutive year that Świątek has inflicted a double bagel on an opponent during the clay season and the second 6-0, 6-0 scoreline of her career at Roland Garros. Such is her notoriety for dismantling opponents, players following Świątek on court now have to make sure they begin their warm-up routines early.

“Usually if you’re after her, you know it’s probably going to be a quick match,” said Coco Gauff, who followed Świątek on to Court Philippe-Chatrier. “So 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. We planned for it.”

As Świątek continued her search for a third consecutive French Open title, she was joined in the quarter-finals by the best of the best as all of the top eight seeds in the top half went through. She will face Markéta Vondroušová next, the Wimbledon champion and fifth seed, who defeated Olga Danilović 6-4, 6-2. Gauff, the third seed, also won comfortably, beating Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-1, 6-2, and she will face a resurgent Ons Jabeur, seeded eighth, who won Clara Tauson 6-4, 6-4.

Spain's Carlos Alcaraz continued his form at the French Open on Sunday. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP

In the men’s draw the third seed, Carlos Alcaraz, continued to build form and confidence as he easily beat Félix Auger-Aliassime, the 21st seed, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarter-finals. He will face the ninth seed, Stefanos Tsitsipas, who demonstrated his mental toughness by recovering to defeat Matteo Arnaldi 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-2. Arnaldi had served for a two-set lead at 5-4 in the second set before Tsitsipas retrieved the break and took control.

A tough matchup awaits Tsitsipas, who has not been able to solve the challenge of facing Alcaraz so far in his career. The Spaniard leads the head-to-head 5-0 and he has smothered Tsitsipas with drop shots in most of their matches, with the Greek so often unable to read them. Right after his fourth-round win, Alcaraz said he knew the key to defeating Tsitsipas.

“The matches that we’ve played, I won all of them,” he said. “So that’s what I wanted to mean when I said that I have the key against him. It doesn’t mean I have to play at my 50 per cent. So I know that Stefanos is playing great, but I know tactically what I have to do in the match, which I’m not going to say, obviously, but I know what I have to do in the match.”

While most top male players avoid doubles because of the best-of-five-sets singles format, this week Tsitsipas committed to the triple crown in Paris. In addition to entering the doubles draw with his doubles specialist brother, Petros, he has also entered the mixed doubles draw with his girlfriend, Paula Badosa.

“Playing doubles and mixed doubles, it is something that you think: ‘No one does it. Why should you do it?’” Tsitsipas said in recent days. “I realised after thinking about it that [I am] in a phase of my life where tennis really brings me joy and pleasure, and [I] want to be here and spend time with [my] loved ones also, but also focus professionally.” – Guardian