Defending champion Iga Swiatek cruised into the second week of Roland Garros while Elena Rybakina was forced to withdraw from the tournament.
The world number one was in a class of her own as she thrashed Xinyu Wang 6-0 6-0 in a 52 minute masterclass.
After suffering mini-blips in her opening two matches, Swiatek was back to her dominant best to reach the last 16.
Swiatek explained after the match that she was happy with her discipline and compared this win to her previous two matches, “You know, just the fact that I know I keep feeling better and better every day and that’s kind of what I wanted to achieve in this tournament,” Swiatek said in her post-match press conference.
“I’m glad that I kind of feel the rhythm a little bit better on every match. I’m just happy that I was disciplined till the end. Well, it was just easier for me to implement all that stuff that I’m talking about with my coach and to tactically play a little bit better.
“First two matches I felt like I kind of need to play against the conditions, but today I was able to, like, control the ball a little bit more. So it was easier for me to like adapt some more complicated — maybe not complicated, but I
wasn’t thinking about the wind.
“I was more thinking about where to play and how to play because it was just easier to control the ball after few hours on Philippe-Chatrier.”
Swiatek has had a fairly comfortable opening week despite a couple of mini-scares as she has only dropped eight games so far in Paris.
However there is a risk that the easy run so far could be a hinderance when facing tougher opposition later on in the tournament.
Swiatek said she tries to prevent laziness as much as possible and tries to remain positive at all times, “But on the other hand I always try to kind of be careful, because you don’t want to get lazy after winning these matches,” Swiatek claimed.
“It’s never easy to win these matches. But on the other hand, sometimes all your head can remember is the score, and I always want to kind of be ready for, you know, every situation.
“So I don’t feel like it’s a problem for me, because as you said, I had many matches like that. But I just try to kind of take as much positive things like confidence and just, you know, feeling that I can play my tennis.
“But kind of also reset from all the other stuff and the expectations and just, you know, go another match like it’s a new one.”
Swiatek will look to continue her winning form as she searches for a third Roland Garros title.
Next for Swiatek is Bianca Andreescu or Lesia Tsurenko on Monday.
Rybakina Withdraws Due To Illness
As Swiatek looks ahead to the fourth round, her nearest rival in the top half of the draw Elena Rybakina has withdrawn from Roland Garros.
The Kazakh has been suffering from Illness and just minutes before her match with Sara Sorribes Tormo, the fourth seed confirmed her withdrawal.
Speaking to the press Rybakina confirmed it was a viral illness, “I was not feeling good already yesterday and the day before, so I didn’t sleep two nights and had some fever,” the Kazakh said.
“Yeah, well, I saw the doctor, and they said that actually it’s all a virus here in Paris. Yeah, I guess with my allergy, immune system just went down
and I picked up something. As I said, I was not sleeping well two days. I had fever, headache.
“Today I really tried on the warmup, but I feel that the right decision is to withdraw, because it’s really tough to play with these conditions. Yeah, of course I’m really upset not be able to play, but I guess that’s life.
“There is a lot of ups and downs. Today I just wanted to give 100%, and obviously I’m far from being 100%. Yeah, I was actually coming positive here, but as I said, you never know how you’re gonna feel. Was unlucky for
me. Yeah, I just try to recover and do my best to be prepared for the grass season already.”
Rybakina will look to be back healthy for Wimbledon where she is the defending champion.
