The French Open
Roland Garros Women’s Day 9
Iga Swiatek caught a break as Lesia Tsurenko retired after less than half an hour on court to hand the top seed a 5-1 stroll into the French Open quarter-finals.
The Polish world No. 1 has reached the last eight of the Grand Slam with titles in 2020 and 2022; she has suffered only nine losing games in four matches at this edition.
Swiatek now owns 11 straight wins at the event and boasts a 25-2 record at the major over her career..
Ukrainian Tsurenko was unable to continue due to illness.
After trailing 4-0, she was seen by the trainer on court who checked her blood pressure. She returned for a few moments before retiring.
Former Top 25 player Tsurenko, a quarter finalist at the 2018 US Open, came back on court for one more game. But after dropping serve, Tsurenko deemed herself unable to continue, and action ended after 31 minutes.
Swiatek had crushed Tsurenko just a week ago in Rome, losing just two games.
The top seed will aim for the semi-finals when she meets up with Coco Gauff, whom she has beaten in all seven of their matches – including last year’s final.
Gauff dealt with a tricky wind on the Chatrier showcourt in a 7-5, 6-2 defeat of Slovak Anna Karolina Schmiedlova.
The US sixth seed defeated her 36th opponent ranked outside the Top 50 as she took victory in 91 minutes, backing up a win over Schmiedlova from Madrid in 2022.
The seed had to overcome a lapse as she led 5-2 in the first set but found herself locked at five-all.
“It was hard to hit through the ball on one side of court due to the wind.
“But I just forgot about the score at 5-5 and started over. I just zoned.”
The teenager who admitted to eating a chocolate pastry for breakfast one morning to the horror of her agent (“we’re in Paris..”) overcame seven double-faults but broke her opponent six times.
Double Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur plugged a hole in her resume by finally reaching a Roland Garros quarter-final.
The Tunisian who frequently breaks records for her North African country, reached the last eight 6-3, 6-1 over Bernarda Pera, taking barely an hour to advance out of the fourth round.
The seventh-seeded Jabeur played finals last season at Wimbledon and the US Open but had never passed the fourth round in Paris.
That barrier has now been broken.
“It was the only Grand Slam missing. I’m very happy with the performance, with the way I was playing – especially coming back after an injury (calf).
“I was just taking it one match at a time, trying to make it to the second week.
“Now I’m gonna push more for the next few matches.. hopefully better than a quarter-final final here, looking for a semi-final.”
Jabeur is the first Tunisian and Arab woman to reach the quarters here and the first African in that position since South Africa’s Amanda Coetzer (1997 semi-finals).
The clay-bred Jabeur won the junior girls’ title in Paris in 2011 and claimed her first Grand Slam match win at the event six years ago.
The French-speaking Jabeur enjoyed solid crowd support during her breakthrough victory.
“There are a lot of Tunisians living in Paris, but there are Tunisians are everywhere.
“I was lucky to see them in the U.S; even in Australia there were a few Tunisians in the crowd.
“But not only Tunisians, also the African continent at large. This is why I’m working so hard.
“I would like to give help; I would like to be present and representing that specific (African and Arab) world.”
Jabeur will play for the semis against Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia, who defeated Sara Sorribe Tormo of Spain 6-7 (3), 6-1, 7-5, a match which took just short of four hours to complete.
Haddad Maia was the first Brazilian woman in the Paris fourth round since 1979 and is the first into a quarter-final here since 1968.
“We were both very emotional,” the winner said. “It’s more than tennis when you play for this long, there are things that get into your head.
“I’m very happy that I didn’t give up, I pushed to my limits and I deserve this victory.”
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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