By Julien Pretot
PARIS (Reuters) -Four-times champion Iga Swiatek clawed her way back from the brink to qualify for the French Open quarter-finals as she beat her clay court nemesis Elena Rybakina after a high-octane decider on Sunday.
The fifth-seeded Pole looked out of sorts as she trailed 6-1 2-0 on Court Philippe Chatrier, leaving the crowd stunned, but Swiatek found her groove and some grit to prevail 1-6 6-3 7-5.
Her final opponent from last year, Jasmine Paolini, was on the wrong end of another dramatic last-16 clash against 13th seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine as the Italian wasted three match points in a 4-6 7-6(6) 6-1 defeat.
Svitolina will provide the next test for Swiatek, who continues her quest to become the first female player since tennis turned professional to claim the singles’ title four times in a row at Roland Garros.
The only women to win the singles at Roland Garros in four straight years were Jeanne Matthey from 1909-12 and Suzanne Lenglen from 1920-23 when only French players competed.
Since tennis turned professional in 1968, Swiatek is one of three women with Monica Seles and Justine Henin to enjoy three consecutive triumphs in Paris and on Sunday it looked like her quest for a fourth straight was going to crash to a halt.
The 12th-seeded Rybakina made a bullet start, putting Swiatek on the back foot with some powerful baseline play and racing to a 5-0 lead, threatening to inflict on the former world number one her first bagel at a Grand Slam.
“It was as if I was playing (men’s world number one and heavy hitter) Jannik Sinner,” Swiatek joked.
DOUBLE FAULTS
If there was any sign that Swiatek was rattled, it was her three double faults at 2-2 in the second set.
The fifth seed still held though and it proved to be a turning point as she went on to break to love and move 4-2 up, bagging 10 consecutive points in the process to send the clash into a decider.
At 4-4, with Rybakina serving at 15-40, the Kazakh appeared to have double-faulted on break point.
Both players were walking towards their benches when chair umpire Kader Nouni’s deep voice overruled the line judge’s call.
The reversal – met with murmurs from the crowd – offered Rybakina an unexpected lifeline as the air filled with electricity.
Swiatek later saved a game point with a blistering forehand winner, but it was Rybakina who ultimately secured the crucial hold, shifting the weight of expectation squarely onto her opponent’s shoulders.
Swiatek cooled down and held, then broke and finished it off on the second match point before unleashing a huge scream and bumping her chest in a mix of released anger and relief.
“In the first set, with her playing like that I felt I did not have a single chance,” said Swiatek, who had lost to Rybakina in their two previous encounters on clay.
“Using the top spin was the plan from the beginning but I did not feel she gave me the space to do that. But I’m happy that I was patient enough to stay in the game and use any opportunity that came to me.”
Elsewhere in the top half of the draw, Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen battled on, the Chinese eighth seed overcoming Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova 7-6(5) 1-6 6-3, with a potential clash against world number one Aryna Sabalenka looming.
In the men’s draw, world number 12 Tommy Paul blitzed Australian Alexei Popyrin 6-3 6-3 6-3 to become the first American male player to reach the French Open quarter-finals in 22 years.
Paul matched Andre Agassi’s run from 2003 after Americans on Saturday equalled a 40-year-old record with five women and three men reaching round four of the clay court Grand Slam.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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