Iga Swatek is not given to elaborate displays of emotion, and she knows better than anyone that much remains to be done if she is to mount a successful defence of her French Open title. The ebullient manner in which the undemonstrative young Pole celebrated her 6-3, 6-4 win over world No 81 Marta Kostyuk therefore spoke volumes.
Having conjured the finest shot of the evening, a flicked lob volley that sailed beyond the despairing Kostyuk to land plum on the baseline, Swiatek bounced up and down, punched the air, and pierced the post-curfew silence on a deserted Court Philippe Chatrier with a primeval roar of delight. Far from her fluent best, Swiatek had survived a dogfight – and she didn’t care who knew it.
Kostyuk had ended the hopes of Garbiñe Muguruza, another former champion, in the opening round and her belief that she could claim a second big scalp was plain from the outset. The Ukrainian’s game plan was simple: serve big, swing hard, be aggressive. It made for an erratic but entertaining spectacle, Kostyuk firing 20 winners and spraying 27 unforced errors as Swiatek sought the middle ground between sustained aggression and consistency.
Ultimately, the difference between the two was simple: Kostyuk caught the eye, Swiatek won the match. It was Swiatek’s first taste of a night session, and by her own admission she struggled to find her rhythm under the lights. But she made it through to the last eight without playing her finest tennis and that, as she acknowledged afterwards, was all that mattered.
“It’s a big achievement,” said Swiatek, who will face Maria Sakkari in the last eight after the Greek defeated fourth seed Sofia Kenin. “I won last year but being in the quarter-finals of a grand slam isn’t like an everyday thing, so I’m really proud.”
Swiatek wears the mantle of defending champion lightly. She went a break down early in both sets, but there was no suggestion of panic. If she feels the pressure, she does not show it. Kostyuk, who at 18 is two years younger than Swiatek, also knows what it is to deal with the weight of expectation at a young age. Three years ago, she reached the third round of the Australian Open as a qualifier, the youngest player to do so in more than two decades. She was guilty of over-pressing at times against Swiatek, but she will learn. A bright future beckons.
For Coco Gauff, the future is now. The 17-year-old dominated Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, winning 6-3, 6-1 in just 53 minutes to reach the last eight at a major for the first time. The American, who like Swiatek has yet to drop a set in Paris, is the youngest quarter-finalist at a slam since Nicole Vaidisova in 2006.
“I feel like all my matches have been – I don’t know how to say it, but straightforward wins, like no crazy three sets and stuff,” said Gauff. “As we know, I have had a lot of those in the past. I just feel like this has been the most consistent tennis I have played at this level. Hopefully I can keep that going.”
Gauff will play Barbora Krejcikova, another quarter-final debutant at this level, after the Czech made short work of Sloane Stephens, the 2018 finalist, winning 6-2, 6-0.
As for Swiatek, she will face another stern test against Sakkari, who became the first Greek woman to reach the last eight at a major with her 6-1, 6-3 win over last year’s finalist Kenin.
“I was stuck in the third round a lot of times, and that was an obstacle,” said Sakkari, the 17th seed. “I wanted to just kind of break that curse and make it to the fourth round. Now I’m excited to be in the quarterfinals for the first time.
“I knew it was going to come. I didn’t know when. But I think that I’ve been playing very good tennis, especially this year, and I don’t see why [I can’t go] further as well.”