Swiatek sends top seed Halep packing
TENNIS
PARIS: Women’s top seed Simona Halep and German sixth seed Alexander Zverev crashed out of the French Open fourth round yesterday after they were both beaten by promising 19yearolds.
Pole Iga Swiatek stunned world No 2 Halep 61, 62, while Italian Jannik Sinner downed US Open runnerup Zverev 63, 63, 46, 63.
In his first main draw at Roland Garros, Sinner moves on to face Rafael Nadal in the quarterfinals after the 12time winner and defending champion dismissed American qualifier Sebastian Korda 61, 61, 62.
Zverev explained he had a fever with a temperature of 100.4deg from his previous match against Marco Cecchinato.
‘‘I am completely sick after the match with Cecchinato in the night,’’ Zverev said.
‘‘I can’t really breathe. I had fever, you know, I shouldn’t have played the match.’’
The French Tennis Federation said Zverev last tested for Covid on September 29 and the test returned a negative result the following day.
Twotime finalist Dominic Thiem survived a fiveset fightback from 20yearold French qualifier Hugo Gaston to win 64, 64, 57, 36, 63.
‘‘I think it was an amazing match, such a big fight from both of us,’’ Thiem, who is aiming for consecutive grand slam wins after his maiden triumph at the US Open in New York, said.
‘‘I was losing a bit of energy. He was playing amazing with drop shots and I couldn’t find an answer then but I’m lucky I made it through today.’’
Thiem will face 12th seed Diego Schwartzman, of Argentina, in the quarterfinals after he prevailed 61, 63, 64 against Italian Lorenzo Sonego.
Fifth seed Kiki Bertens, of the Netherlands, was also eliminated by an unknown quantity as she lost 64, 64 to another Italian success story in Martina Trevisan, who will share a first grandslam quarterfinal with Swiatek.
There are just four seeds left in the women’s draw and the highest ranked is thirdseeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who dispatched Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia 61, 63.
Svitolina plays Argentine Nadia Podoroska next after her threeset success over Czech Barbora Krejcikova.
Nadal earned eight breaks against 20yearold Korda, who is the son of former world No 2 Petr, to complete his 97th Roland Garros victory in 1 hour 55 minutes.
Swiatek, ranked 54th in the world, dominated Halep in the rallies as she won three straight games before breaking her serve a second time for a 51 lead after just 20 minutes.
Swiatek served for another 51 advantage in the second set and, even though Halep held on for the following game, the Romanian’s time in Paris was over when Swiatek won with an overpowering final delivery.
‘‘I’m surprised I could do that,’’ Swiatek said.
‘‘This week has been a dream come true for me.’’ — DPA