Swiatek stuns top seed Halep

PARIS: Polish teenager Iga Swiatek sent top seed Simona Halep out of the French Open on Sunday with a crushing 6-1, 6-2 victory, and made it to her maiden Grand Slam quarter-final.

Halep came into the fourth round clash on a 17-match unbeaten streak, having defeated the 19-year-old Swiatek, ranked 54th in the world, 6-1, 6-0 at the same stage last year in the clay court Grand Slam. Swiatek avenged that morale-sapping defeat and her victory in 68 minutes against the 2018 French Open champion was no less impressive.

“I don’t know what happened. I felt like I was playing perfectly. I was so focused the whole match,” said Swiatek. In men’s singles, second seed Rafael Nadal blew away American qualifier Sebastian Korda 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 to romp into the French Open quarter-finals.

Korda, 20, actually had two break points in Nadal’s opening service game, and also had a game point in the following one. However, he won neither and once Nadal had sprinted into a 5-0 lead in the opener, the American looked forlorn. Spaniard Nadal has dropped only 23 games so far and is yet to face a seed.