Iga Swiatek produced a clinical performance at the French Open on Sunday to seal her place in the last eight.
The world No.1 and reigning champion crushed Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0, in less than an hour to move into the quarter-finals for a fifth year running. Swiatek outmuscled and overpowered her opponent in every aspect of the match. Making light work of a player who almost cracked the world’s top 20 last year and has beaten a top 10 player on six occasions.
Swiatek’s one-sided performance saw her hit 13 winners as she capitalised on Potapova’s 16 unforced errors. Overall, she dropped only three points behind her serve.
“I was just really focused and in the zone. I wasn’t looking at the score so I just continued playing my game and working on the stuff I wanted to work on.” Said Swiatek.
“It (the match) went really quickly, pretty weird.”
Unlike her roller-coaster battle with Noami Osaka in the second round, Swiatek breezed her way through the opening set in just 20 minutes without conceding a single game. Incredibly, it is the 23rd time in her career that she has bageled an opponent in a Grand Slam event. Against world No.41 Potapova, she won 24 out of 30 points played.
Bagel No.24 then occurred for the Pole who refused to let up throughout the match. Drawing inevitable outbursts of frustration from Potapova who was playing in the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career. Swiatek sealed the one-sided win in exactly 40 minutes after Potapova hit a forehand into the net.
It is the second time she has won a Grand Slam match without dropping a game. The first time she did so was also at the French Open in 2023 against China’s Wang Xinyu in the third round.
Swiatek has now won 20 consecutive matches against players ranked outside the top 20. She is also currently on a 15-match winning streak on the Tour, as well as a 17-match winning run at Roland Garros specifically.
In the next round, Swiatek will play either 2019 runner-up Markéta Vondroušová or Olga Danilović. Two players she is yet to lose to on the Tour.
