Paris – Paris (AP) – IGA Swiatek He directed things in Roland-Garros after dropping eight of the first nine games against Elena Rybakina, planted, in the fourth round on Sunday, gathering a 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory to extend its offer for a fourth consecutive record France open championship.
The Rybakina of great service and forceful- Who won Wimbledon in 2022 -To an impressive start, leading 5-0 after less than 20 minutes and grabbing 24 of the 32 initial points. She was responsible for 10 of the first 12 winners of the party.
“I needed to do something to return to the game and, honestly, with her playing like this, I didn’t have very hopeful,” Swiatek said later.
There was more of the same in the second set. Swiatek blamed double to close the first game, then turned to his team in the stands with the palms up and said something; It was soon 2-0.
However, that is when Swiatek suddenly became what has been so often in recent seasons, but not in the last 12 months: a seemingly invincible force in Red Clay that has won four of the last five titles in the open of France, where he is 39-2 for his career and is undefeated in his last 25 competitions.
That certainly seemed in danger from the beginning in the Philippe-Batrier court, where Swiatek had trouble dealing with the power of Rybakina and was repeatedly forced to errors. Given the difficult section since June 2024 for Swiatk, a 23 -year -old girl from Poland, may not have been completely shocking for her to get lost on Sunday.
After all, Swiatek has not reached the end of any event since he won the trophy in Paris a year ago and has slipped from number 1 to number 5 in the WTA classification.
That routine includes a Surprising output in the semifinals in the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, which were played in Roland-Garros; She ended with the bronze medal. Then, later last season, she was prohibited for a total of a month after positive for a prohibited substance; His explanation was accepted that the result was not intentional and caused by contaminated medicine.
On Tuesday, Swiatek will play against No. 13 Elina Svitolina, three times important semifinalist but 0-4 in the quarterfinals of the previous open open.
Svitolina saved three earlier points on Sunday to overcome 2024 runner-up Jasmine Paolini 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1. The eight seeds of the eight main women reached the fourth round; No. 4 Paolini was the first to leave.
Swiatek was almost the next, but she took out the busy victory.
A key moment in the 2 1/2 hours that perhaps foreshadowed Rybakina’s unraveling occurred when he was at a point of a second break in the second set and had the opportunity to hit a right -wing blow in an empty section of the court. Instead, she hit him directly on Swiatek. When the ball returned on the network, Rybakina scored a jump over.
Soon, Swiatek was playing better, imposing himself on the exchanges of dumps of earth as she tends to do so, partly approaching the baseline. Their returns became more effective as the first Rybakina service percentage fell from 56% in the first 45% set in the second and 43% in the third.
In the second set, Swiatek retired from five consecutive games and, in an explosion, 10 consecutive points.
Even so, not everything sailed softly in the third for Swiatek. You are welcome.
He faced three rest points while he continued 3-2, but escaped that situation. However, after winning a break to lead 4-3, Swiatek returned it back, with double guilt to allow Rybakina to do it 4-there.
In the next game, Swiatek seemed to have a break for a 5-4 advantage when, at the interruption point, Rybakina’s second service was blamed. But the Kader Nouni chair referee annulled the call of the line judge. When Swiatek told him that Rybakina did not discuss the original ruling, Nouni replied: “It is my responsibility to check it.”
It was one of several dispute calls in the third, and Rybakina finally remained there, and Swiatek remained for 5-there, then claimed the last two games. When the game ended in his right -wing winner, Swiatek shouted, shook his heels and put his fist on his chest.
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Howard Fendrich has been the AP tennis writer since 2002. He finds his stories here: https://apnews.com/author/howard-fendrich. More AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tenis
