IT had to be seen to be believed, but world number one Iga Swiatek played like she had somewhere to be during her fourth round win over Anastasia Potapova, smashing the Russian 6-0 6-0 in just four minutes at Roland Garros. Swiatek’s double bagel in the Round of 16 was her shortest match in history, and made her the first player in two decades to win 6-0 6-0 in consecutive years at the French Open.
Any double-bagel is a whitewash, but Swiatek conceded just 10 points for the entire match – while winning the bare minimum 48 in order to secure the win. Put simply, Potapova could not even get one single game to deuce such was Swiatek’s dominance.
The top ranked Pole converted six of eight break point chances, holding serve the other six games without facing a break point. Of the 48 points, 13 were winners and she only made five errors, which accounted for half of her opponent’s points. Potapova hit five winners to make up the remaining points, but also 19 unforced errors among 35 total errors in a match she will look to forget in a hurry.
Swiatek only dropped three points on serve, winning 15 of 16 points off her first serve, and nine of 11 off her second, while serving three aces without a double fault. Her Round of 16 win on Court Philippe-Chartrier was a blink-and-you-miss-it performance as she stormed into the quarter finals.
“It went pretty quickly, pretty weird,” Swiatek said post-match.
In describing how it felt to win so efficiently, Swiatek said she was “comfortable” throughout the match.
“You just go with it because there’s no point of changing anything,” she said. “You just continue what you’ve been doing and what has been working.
“Honestly, I was always focusing on the next point. I didn’t really look at what happened before. So that was probably also why I could be efficient.”
The reigning back-to-back champion takes on Wimbledon champion and past Roland Garros finalist Marketa Vondrousova in the quarter finals, after the Czech won 11 of the last 13 games in her match against Serbian qualifier Olga Danilovic, to triumph 6-4 6-2.
In the other two results, world number three Coco Gauff made light work of Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-1 6-2 to set up a quarter final against eighth seeded Ons Jabeur. The Tunisian rolled Clara Tauson 6-4 6-4.
2024 ROLAND GARROS WTA ROUND OF 16 RESULTS:
[1] Iga Swiatek (POL) defeated Anastasia Potapova (RUS) 6-0 6-0
[3] Coco Gauff (USA) defeated Elisabetta Cocciaretto (ITA) 6-1 6-2
[5] Marketa Vondrousova (CZE) defeated Olga Danilovic (SRB) 6-4 6-2
[8]Ons Jabeur (TUN) defeated Clara Tauson (DEN) 6-4 6-4
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