Roland Garros: Halep defeats Swiatek to reach quarterfinals

Defending champion Simona Halep of Romania swiftly moved into the Roland Garros quarterfinals for the third straight year by ending the run of rapidly-rising Polish teenager Iga Swiatek, 6-1, 6-0 on Court Philippe Chatrier on Monday.

No.3 seed Halep’s deep hitting and vast reserves of experience proved to be too much for Swiatek to overcome in the Pole’s first-ever fourth-round appearance at a Grand Slam event, and the reigning titleholder, who also reached the final in Paris in 2014 and 2017, eased to victory after 45 minutes of play, wtatennis.com informs.

Halep converted seven of her ten break points during the encounter, had 17 winners, and limited her unforced error count to a paltry five. The former World No.1 won 84 percent of points on her first serve, and 73 percent of points returning the Swiatek serve.

Swiatek, who turned 18 on Friday and reached her first WTA singles final on clay in Lugano earlier this year, had a noteworthy run to her first-ever second week showing at a major, but was overcome by last year’s champion. The Polish youngster fired 13 winners in the match but was undone by 19 unforced errors, and could only win five of her 19 first-service points during the clash.

In the elite eight, Halep will face 17-year-old Amanda Anisimova of the United States who defeated 21-year-old Spanish player Aliona Bolsova 6-3, 6-0.