The French Open
Roland Garros 2024 Women’s Day 10
Untouchable Iga Swiatek delivered another French Open beatdown on Tuesday, losing just two games against fellow reigning Grand Slam champion Marketa Vondrousova to advance to the semi-finals.
The defending champion ole who claimed the first of her four career titles at the majors here in Paris, 2020, will on Thursday take on Coco Gauff for a spot in Saturday’s final at Roland Garros.
Swiatek’s 6-0, 6-2 hammering of Wimbledon winner Vondrousova took just 62 minutes, with the outclassed Czech finally winning a game at the 37-minute mark.
Victory was Swiatek’s 17th in a row on clay, leaving her one short of levelling her all-time clay streak from 2022.
The world No. 1, bidding for a fourth Paris trophy, was all but unchallenged on her way to the win on her first match point.
“I was in the zone,” she said, “Everything in my game was working. I also served better than in previous matches.”
The victory was two days removed from her 6-0, 6-0 “double bagel” win over Anastasia Potapova in the fourth round.
“I played pretty heavy today and stuck with my tactics and didn’t over-think anything,” Swiatek said.
“It was pretty straightforward today.”
Gauff booked her spot with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 fightback over Ons Jabeur.
Gauf and Swiatek played the 2023 Paris final and met in the quarters last year.
“I’ll prepare for it the same as any other match,” Swiatek said. “You don’t want to change your routine or think of it as something huge.
“Coco will not be easy, she likes clay and has played well here. I’ll focus on myself in preparation and we’ll see.”
Against Jabeur, Gauf got on the back foot as her treble Grand Slam finalist opponent won the opening set.
But the 20-year-old American third seed said that only inspired her to lift her game: “I was trying to be more aggressive. Ons was playing well and sending a lot of winners past me, which I’m not used to.
“But I held on towards the end even if I got a bit tight on a couple of match points. I did what I needed to do to win the match.”
The US Open champion will play in her fourth Grand Slam semi-final and third in a row.
The winner said that while she felt the majority of the crowd was cheering her French-speaking eighth-seeded opponent from Tunisia, “there were a couple of people behind my box who I could hear supporting me.”
She added: “I was having fun even if I lost the first set.”
Gauff has had three consecutive close calls at Roland Garros, losing to the eventual champion – Barbora Krejcikova (2021) and Swiatek in 2022 and 2023.
The loss dropped Jabeur to 1-5 versus US players this season.
“Quarter-finals is not bad. I’ll take it,” Jabeur said. “Clay demands a lot of physical strength for sure.
“I felt good, but I’ll try to get better, try to manage the pressure and the stress.
“I just love this tournament, and I really enjoy playing here.”
Main photo:- Iga Swiatek completing her 17 match winning streak by Roger Parker Interational Sports Fotos
Alexander Zverev on Thursday made a long-sought after return to the Shanghai Masters semi-finals, booking his first final four at the event since 2019, defeating Alex de Minaur 6-4, 6-4.
The 2027 year-end No. 1 last got this far as the Covid pandemic began to surface in China in 2019. The event was not played 2020-2022, with the German making modest progress here over the past three editions since resumption.
After winning his 62nd match of the season, the 29-year-old was pleased with his performance.
“I think it was a huge step up. From just being on the court I felt both of us were playing really well.
“I was, a lot of the time, outhitting Alex, which is difficult to do from the baseline because he is so fast and he loves this kind of court speed here.
“I felt good and I’m happy with the step up from the past couple of matches.”
Zverev advanced in 78 minutes, sending over 10 aces as he defeated the Australian for the ninth time in their 13 matches.
Added the reigning Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows Grand Slam champion: “I’ve been handling pressure quite okay this year. In a way you play a bit more relaxed.
“Once Jannik (SInner) unfortunately announced he won’t play for the rest of the year, I’m 4,000 points ahead of everyone else, so I trust myself enough that I’m going to win [enough matches].
Zverev will play for the final to wrap up the Asian swing as he takes on Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who advanced when Arthur Gea quit their quarter-final with injury.
Alexander Zverev will claim world year-end No. 1 honours for the first time on the back of two Grand Slam titles and a final this season.,
The ATP confirmed the changing of the guard as current No. 1 Jannik Sinner ended his season early last week due to a knee injury which has kept him off court since winning Wimbledon three months ago.
Zverev won Roland Garros and US Open trophies and lost to Sinner in the All England Club final.
His reign at the top will begin after the ATP Final in Turin with the ranking period starting on November 23.
Zverev will be 29 years, 217 days old on the date, three days older than Andre Agassi in 1999 (29 years, 214 days).
Main photo:- Alexander Zverev by ISF Ltd
Zheng Qinwen continued an injury comeback season on Sunday, defeating Roland Garros winner Mirra Andreeva 7-5, 6-4 to win the China Open.
Victory at the 1000-level event was the first trophy for the 54th-raked Chinese player who once reached fourth in the world before elbow surgery.
Zheng saved three set points in the opening set and claimed victory by winning the last 11 points of the set, breaking late in the second to conclude her success over her teenaged opponent.
The winner now owns six career trophies after winning her first 1000; she last claimed a title in Tokyo two years ago.
In an odd twist, the new winner was cajoled into singing a few bars of karaoke during the trophy ceremony.
She will now move back into the ranking top 25 while Andreeva advances to third in the world behind Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka after defeating her third top 10 opponent this season.
“The feeling was incredible, two weeks here in Beijing, in front of my home crowd is one of my dreams, especially playing against Mirra, such a great player,” the winner said.
“I’ve been through a very, very tough year.”
Andreeva broke new ground in her own career by reaching the final, becoming the third-youngest this century to reach the top 3 behind Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters.
“She’s a great server. I also think today I missed a lot of returns trying to go for it, trying to be more aggressive,” Andreeva said,
“I wanted to go for it but couldn’t really find I guess the margin, couldn’t really find the rhythm, as well. I will probably need to look at this match and just see why, try to improve and learn from that.
“Overall of course it was a good tournament,” she added. “A lot of positives to take from these two weeks. Of course, I felt like today just wasn’t meant to be.
“I think I will be able to look to this match maybe from a different perspective and see maybe some good things.”
Main photo:- Zheng Quinwen by ISF Ltd
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