Tennis: Swiatek racks up 31st straight win as title rivals crash
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Poland's Iga Swiatek celebrates winning against Danka Kovinic of Montenegro in their women’s third-round match.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
PARIS (AFP) - World number one Iga Swiatek was the only top 10 seed left standing at the French Open on Saturday (May 28) after racking up her 31st straight win as third seed Paula Badosa and seventh-ranked Aryna Sabalenka crashed out in the third round.
Swiatek, the 2020 champion, dropped serve three times against 95th-ranked Danka Kovinic of Montenegro before sealing a 6-3, 7-5 victory.
Kovinic recovered from 1-4 down in the second set to lead 5-4 but the Pole steadied with a hold and a break before serving out for victory.
"I wanted to play really aggressively but sometimes I felt I was hitting with too much power and it was hard to control," said 20-year-old Swiatek.
Swiatek's winning streak is the best on tour since Serena Williams's 34 successive victories in 2013.
Swiatek next faces Chinese teenager Zheng Qinwen who made the last 16 on her debut when French veteran Alize Cornet, playing in her 61st consecutive Grand Slam, retired with a leg injury, trailing 6-0, 3-0 after just 44 minutes.
Having stunned 2018 champion Simona Halep in the second round, Zheng becomes only the fourth Chinese woman to make the last 16 in Paris where compatriot Li Na won her landmark Slam title in 2011.
"I did everything I had to do. I always knew I had the level to do well, now I just want to keep going," said the 19-year-old Zheng.
Spain's Badosa, who made the quarter-finals in 2021, retired from her last 32 match through injury when she was trailing Russia's Veronika Kudermetova 6-3, 2-1.
Sabalenka, the seventh seed, slipped to a 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 defeat to Italy's Camila Giorgi who is into the fourth round for the first time.
