Swiatek sweeps past Svitolina to set up Sabalenka showdown at French Open

Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek will take their era-defining rivalry to the latter stages of the French Open for the first time as they reached the semi-finals.

Sabalenka, the world No 1, edged past Zheng Qinwen, the eighth seed, 7-6 (3), 6-3 to end the Olympic gold medalist’s 10-match winning streak at Roland Garros. Sabalenka has reached the last four in nine of her past 10 grand slam tournaments, her only earlier loss coming in the quarter-finals in Paris last year when she was suffering from food poisoning.

Shortly after a satisfied Sabalenka departed Court Philippe-Chatrier, the fifth seed Swiatek returned to her favourite court and closed out a deceptively difficult 6-1, 7-5 win over Elina Svitolina to maintain her remarkable streak in Paris. Swiatek has now won 26 consecutive matches at the French Open and stands just two victories away from becoming the first woman in the Open era to win the French Open four years in succession.

Thursday will mark a 13th battle between Sabalenka, a three-time grand slam champion, and Swiatek, who has won five. Swiatek leads the head-to-head 8-4 and the match-up has produced some memorable contests including an unforgettable 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7) win for Swiatek in last year’s Madrid Open final. However, their only previous meeting at a grand slam came in 2022 when Swiatek defeated Sabalenka in the semi-final of the US Open.

“Before it wasn’t any communication, any practices with her, but now we are getting better. We get along better, and we practice more often, and we know each other quite well,” said Sabalenka. “We’ve had a lot of great battles in the past. I’m super excited and it’s high-level matches. I’m super excited to go out there and to fight and to do everything I need to get the win.”

On a difficult, windy afternoon in Paris, Sabalenka had a score to settle against Zheng, who finally defeated her for the first time in seven attempts at the Italian Open three weeks ago. As she has positioned herself at the top of the sport, Sabalenka’s mental toughness and composure has become one of her most important assets. Despite trailing by a break for much of the first set, she methodically worked her way back into the match before taking control with an authoritative tie-break.

View image in fullscreen Aryna Sabalenka on her way to beating Zheng Qinwen 7-6, 6-3 at Roland Garros. Photograph: Lionel Hahn/Getty Images

Having started this tournament searching for confidence and self-belief after a difficult run of form, Swiatek’s fourth-round victory over Elena Rybakina after trailing 1-6, 0-2 has clearly boosted her confidence. On Tuesday, an unusually aggressive Svitolina made life difficult for Swiatek in their numerous attritional service games but Swiatek remained sharp and focused on the key points.

“I don’t know if she elevates my game,” said Swiatek on Sabalenka. “Against every player, we play a different way, so it’s hard to compare. But for sure our rivalry is pushing both of us, I think, but it’s not only about the level of tennis. It’s about like everything, how we work, and how professional we are. So I can say that for sure.”

With the two most successful players of the past few years in action, Tuesday’s lineup also drew further attention to the tournament’s controversial scheduling decisions. In addition to the Roland Garros organisers refusing to schedule any women’s clash as the feature evening match on Chatrier each day, a women’s match has been pencilled in as the first event on Chatrier every day of the week, a time when Parisian crowds tend to be more interested in preparing for lunch than watching tennis.

“I definitely have to say that we deserve equal treatment,” said Sabalenka. “There were a lot of great battles, a lot of great matches, which would be cool to see as night session [matches], just more people in the stands watching these incredible battles. And just to show ourselves to more people. I definitely agree that we deserve to be put in a bigger stage, like better timing, more people watching.”

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