Roland Garros 2024 Women’s Day 8

Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff picked up the tempo at the French Open on Sunday, with the pair scoring quick-fire wins to move into the quarter-finals.

Defending champion Swiatek crushed another underdog opponent, dispatching Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0 in 40 minutes and securing a “double bagel” scoreline here for the second year in a row.

The world No. 1  duplicated the love-love result from the 2023 Paris third round when she blanked Wang Xinyu of China.

Gauff, seeded third, needed a relatively lengthy hour on the clay to end the hopes of Italian Elisabetta Coccciaretto 6-1, 6-2.

Swiatek’s demolition job on Potapova extended her clay win streak to 16 straight, just two short of her 2022 victory run.

The Pole said she barely noticed who comprehensively she was mowing down the 41st-ranked Potapova.

“I was really focused on my game and what I needed to work on – I was not looking at the score,” the three-time Roland Garros winner said after losing just 10 points in the rout and committing two unforced errors.

“I just played my game. It all went pretty quickly, it was pretty weird.”

Playing on only the second dry day of the week, the top seed was thankful to get some benefit from admittedly chill – but dry – June weather.

“The balls bounce higher in these temperatures. It’s not warm; it doesn’t feel like summer in Europe.

“The forecasts here are not precise, sometimes we get rain out of nowhere.”

Swiatek next faces a fellow reigning Grand Slam champion as she takes on Wimbledon winner Marketa Vondrousova, who defeated Serb qualifier Olga Daniovic 6-4, 6-2.

The Pole has won all three matches played against the Czech, including the 2020 Paris first round.

Gauff, 2022 runner-up in Paris to Swiatek, said a two-minute strategy session with her coach was enough time to get a grip on her plan for the match.

The 20-year-old who holds the US Open title executed to perfection against Cocciaretto, the No. 51 who has now lost all three of her meetings with Top 5 opponents.

“This week I feel like I’ve been managing and playing well,” Gauff said.

“I feel like it’s tough conditions to play in, just really slow and muggy; the weather makes you maybe not as hyped up for your match.

“This (bad weather) week at Roland Garros has been a little bit different than the past first weeks.”

Tunisian Ons Jabeur, the eighth seed, booked her spot with a defea  of Dane Clara Tauson 6-4, 6-4.

Main photo:- Coco Gauff winning in straight sets today – by Roger Parker International Sports Fotos