Top seed Swiatek survives scare
Iga Swiatek’s 20-set winning streak ended. Doesn’t matter, because her run of consecutive match victories is now up to 32.
The No. 1-ranked Swiatek shook off an uncharacteristically problematic stretch and came back to beat 19-year-old Zheng Qinwen of China 6-7 (5), 6-0, 6-2 Monday in the fourth round at Roland Garros.
Swiatek, the 2020 French Open champion, took leads of 3-0 and 5-2 in the first set but couldn’t close it out, wasting five set points in all. In the tiebreaker, Swiatek claimed five consecutive points to lead 5-2 — and the 74th-ranked Zheng responded by reeling off the next five points.
That was the first set ceded by Swiatek since April 23..
Swiatek has not lost a match since February, earning five consecutive titles. No woman has produced more wins in a row since Serena Williams had a 34-match streak end in 2013.
Swiatek’s quarterfinal opponent will be 11th-seeded Jessica Pegula of the United States.
Pegula made it to the French quarterfinals for the first time by coming back to beat Irina-Camelia Begu 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Pegula joins two other American women in the quarterfinals in Paris. Coco Gauff and Sloane Stephens face each other on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old Pegula is seeded 11th at Roland Garros. Her two previous runs to the round of eight at Grand Slam tournaments came at the Australian Open — this January and last year.
Pegula arrived in Paris with a 2-3 career record at the clay-court major, with one third-round appearance.
She needed 10 match points to close out her firstround victory and eight in the second round last week.
On the men’s side, Danish teenager Holger Rune eliminated 2021 French Open runner-up Stefanos Tsitsipas to reach his first major quarterfinal in his Roland Garros debut.
The 40th-ranked Rune beat fourth-seeded Tsitsipas 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 at Court Philippe Chatrier on Monday.
Tsitsipas is the first member of the top eight seeds to leave the men’s bracket.
Rune never had won a Grand Slam match until last week, going 0-2 in previous
appearances.