New French Open champions will be crowned in both the women’s and men’s singles after Marta Kostyuk continued a tournament of shocks by knocking out Iga Swiatek.
Defending champion Coco Gauff’s defeat on Saturday left four-time winner Swiatek as the only remaining player in either draw to have lifted the trophy at Roland Garros.
But the Pole has endured a difficult season and produced an error-strewn display in a 7-5 6-1 defeat by in-form Kostyuk.
It was a very unhappy 25th birthday for Swiatek, who admitted afterwards that she had been unable to overcome the tension of the occasion.
“It is harder a bit to handle stress for me in the last year,” she said. “Today I felt off and I did mistakes that I didn’t want to do, and I wanted to play safe, but the ball flew everywhere.“Suddenly these feelings came back, and I tried to work on it with my dialogue inside, but it was tough today. It all kind of went drastically down, and I played worse and worse.”
Kostyuk is yet to lose a match on clay this season after winning the biggest title of her career in Madrid earlier this month, and she extended her unbeaten run to 16 matches.
It is just the second time the 23-year-old, who sits at a career-high ranking of 15, has made it through to the quarter-finals of a grand slam after the Australian Open in 2024.
“To beat such an unbelievable player who won four times here, I’d lost (three) times to her, never taken a set off her, I still cannot believe it,” said Kostyuk.
“I think the most important thing I’ve been doing is really just trying to enjoy. I woke up this morning and I just thought about what an unbelievable day I have to live today to play on Chatrier against Iga.”
Swiatek changed coaches earlier in the spring in an effort to arrest her slide, bringing in Rafael Nadal and Emma Raducanu’s former coach Francisco Roig, but her troubles remain and this is her earliest defeat on the Parisian clay since her debut in 2019.
She had won her first three matches comfortably and served for the first set here but could not clinch it and two double faults in the 12th game helped Kostyuk move into the lead.
Swiatek went for a lengthy bathroom break and broke serve immediately to start the second set only to again double fault twice and hand the initiative back.
Her forehand, so often a barometer of her game and confidence, became increasingly wayward and a final backhand that flew way wide was her 38th unforced error of the match.
Swiatek will now turn her attentions to grass and the defence of her Wimbledon title.
Kostyuk began the tournament in tears on court, revealing that her family home in Kyiv had narrowly avoided being hit by a Russian missile, but her victory continued an excellent tournament for Ukraine’s women.
And she will next play a compatriot after Elina Svitolina, another woman in some of the best form of her career, defeated Belinda Bencic 4-6 6-4 6-0.
Also through to the last eight – for the first time here in 17 years – is Romanian Sorana Cirstea after a 6-3 7-6 (4) victory over China’s Xiyu Wang.
The 36-year-old announced ahead of this season that it would be her last, but she may have to rethink her plans after breaking into the top 20 for the first time.
PA
