Swiatek runs into trouble but reaches French Open last 16
IMAGE: Poland’s Iga Swiatek plays a forehand against Danka Kovinic of Montenegro. Photograph: Ryan Pierse/Getty Images
Top ranked Iga Swiatek ran into a spot of bother as she beat Danka Kovinic of Montenegro 6-3, 7-5 to reach the fourth round of the French Open and extend her winning streak to 31 matches on Saturday.
The Polish player, who is unbeaten since last February, has also won 46 of her last 47 sets after claiming titles on claycourt in Stuttgart and Rome.
The 2020 champion is bidding to become the fourth player since 2000 to lift the Suzanne Lenglen Cup multiple times after Justine Henin, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova.
The 20-year-old is on the longest unbeaten run in the women’s tour since Serena Williams bagged 34 victories in succession in 2013.
“I wanted to play aggressively but maybe putting too much power and her balls were so powerful so it was tough to handle at full speed. I had to take fewer risks but she did a great job defending,” said Swiatek, who will next face either France’s Alize Cornet or Chinese Zheng Qinwen.
“She was serving with precision so it was tricky to see where she was going to serve but I have played heavy hitters before, although it was a bit hard to adjust at the beginning.”
Swiatek broke for 2-0 on her sixth opportunity but appeared to be struggling to handle her opponent’s heavy forehand.
Kovinic, the world number 95, even managed to break back in the seventh game but immediately dropped serve again with four unforced errors in a row. Swiatek followed up on serve to bag the opening set.
Kovinic’s efforts took their toll as she had less stamina and she made more and more unforced errors, losing four consecutive games to allow the world number one to move 4-1 up. But she found some unsuspected resources to break back twice and even go 5-4 up after winning 11 points in a row.
Facing the prospect of dropping her first set in the tournament, Swiatek found better angles to level for 5-5 and break decisively when Kovinic completely misfired a forehand.
Whipping the ball with poise, Swiatek wrapped it up on her second match point with an unreturnable serve.
Second seed Medvedev trounces Kecmanovic in straight sets for fourth round spot
IMAGE: Russia’s Daniil Medvedev shakes hands with Serbia’s Miomir Kecmanovic after winning his third round match. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters
Second seed Daniil Medvedev cruised past Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia with a comfortable 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 victory in less than two hours to advance to the French Open fourth round.
The US Open champion, who reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros last year after four consecutive first-round exits, played near flawless service games throughout to give his opponent, ranked 31st in the world, no real chance.
“It was magnificent today. I did not have my serve broken,” Medvedev, runner-up at the Australian Open this season, said in an on-court interview. “On this surface it is quite unusual. Hopefully there are more such matches for me next week.
“Like in my French, I try to do better in my tennis all the time. The better I learn French the better my tennis will become.”
Medvedev found little resistance on his least favourite surface from the Serb 28th seed and broke him twice in the opening set before another early break made sure of a 2-0 set lead for the Russian.
He had arrived at the French Open with only one match on clay under his belt after undergoing a procedure to treat a hernia in April but it did not show against Kecmanovic, who tried to battle back only to be broken again at 2-2 following a lengthy rally and a slice backhand that went long.
Medvedev finished the game on his first match point, firing a forehand cross-court past Kecmanovic. He next plays the winner of the match between Frenchman Gilles Simon and Croatia’s Marin Cilic.
Sinner punishes wasteful McDonald to book fourth round spot
IMAGE: Italy’s Jannik Sinner in action during his third round match against Mackenzie McDonald of the US. Photograph: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters
Italian 11th seed Jannik Sinner saved 11 set points in the second set before beating wasteful American Mackenzie McDonald 6-3, 7-6, 6-3 to reach the fourth round at the French Open.
Sinner had his back to the wall at 5-2 down in the second set but kept his composure as the world number 60 squandered chance after chance to clinch it.
“Both of us were not felling well on court but very happy to be through,” Sinner said.
“I don’t feel 100 percent that’s for sure,” added Sinner, who played with his left knee strapped. “I don’t want to talk about it. But I served well, and I broke him early in the third set.”
Sinner broke the American once midway through the first set to go into the lead. The world number 12 then carved out three break opportunities in a marathon fifth game of the second set that lasted almost 15 minutes but McDonald fought back to win it.
It was the American who then earned two straight breaks to go 5-2 up but then spectacularly imploded when he squandered 11 set points to allow Sinner, who himself littered the court with 40 unforced errors in the opening two sets alone, to clinch the tiebreak in a set that lasted an hour and a half.
There was no coming back for the American as Sinner then raced to a 3-0 lead and clinched the match when his opponent sailed a forehand long, to set up a fourth round encounter with the winner of the match between Russian Andrey Rublev and Chile’s Cristian Garin.
