Roland-Garros | Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff easily move into quarters

(Paris) World No.1 and big favorite Iga Swiatek was merciless on Sunday at Roland-Garros by beating Russian Anastasia Potapova (41^e) 6-0, 6-0, and thus qualified for the quarter-finals in 40 minutes.

“I was very focused. I wasn’t looking at the score and I was playing my game. It happened very quickly, it’s quite strange,” commented the 22-year-old Pole.

Triple winner of the Major on earth (2020, 2022, 2023), she will face the Czech Marketa Vondrousova (6^e), winner of Wimbledon last year and finalist at Roland-Garros in 2019, who beat Serbian Olga Danilovic (125^e and result of qualifications) 6-4, 6-2.

In the cold and on the wind-swept Philippe-Chatrier court, Potapova, 23, was not under any illusions for a quarter of a second.

Having chosen to receive, she was immediately under pressure from Swiatek who left her with only six points in all in the first round, completed in 21 minutes.

The match continued at the same pace, even a little faster since Swiatek folded the second set in 19 minutes, this time leaving only four points to his opponent, including a direct error.

Aside from her second-round match won in three sets against former world No.1 Naomi Osaka, Swiatek cruised through her other three matches up to that point, on her way to a fifth Grand Slam title (in her three Roland -Garros, add the 2022 United States Open).

For her part, Vondrousova started her game badly, finding herself trailing 4-1 in the first set. But she then chained seven games in a row to lead a set to zero and 2-0. The rest seemed simple from the outside, but not for Vondrousova.

“I had to stay focused until the end because I knew that in her previous matches, she had come back after being down,” underlined the Czech, referring in particular to the third round of Danilovic, who had beaten the Croatian Donna Vekic after having yet lost the first set 6-0.

Vondrousova also conceded a 6-0 in the second round against the American Katie Volynets.

“Yes, the first rounds are always difficult and what’s more, this second round was played over two days [en raison de la pluie, NDLR]so I’m happy to be in the quarter-finals,” commented the Czech.

Gauff finds the quarters

Coco Gauff, 3^e world champion and finalist in 2022, took only 60 minutes to beat the Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto (51^e) 6-1, 6-2, and reach the quarter-finals.

The 20-year-old American, winner of the last United States Open, will face Tuesday the Tunisian Ons Jabeur (9) or the Dane Clara Tauson (72^e) to try to reach the semi-finals.

Sunday against Cocciaretto, Gauff flew through the first round before having to work a little harder to keep the Italian under her control.

Protected against the cold by a long-sleeved t-shirt and a sleeveless sweater, the American was able to accelerate and tighten her game to avoid cold sweats in the face of the Italian’s attempted rebellion.

And she won without trembling on the last two unforced errors from Cocciaretto (for a total of 18).