World No. 1 Iga Swiatek extended her unbeaten run at Roland Garros and against Marketa Vondrousova in Paris on Tuesday, as she rolled past the reigning Wimbledon champion 6-0, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.
Swiatek will take a 19-match winning streak at Roland Garros into the semifinals against Coco Gauff as she looks to advance to the final for the fourth time in six appearances in Paris, and for the third year in a row.
But first, she extended her unbeaten record against Vondrousova to 4-0 with a dominant 62-minute performance in which she hit 25 winners, broke serve five times, and swatted away the only break point she faced. Swiatek has never lost a set against Vondrousova in their matches, and four of the eight have been either 6-0 or 6-1.
Afterwards, the Pole dubbed the match "probably, the best performance I have had here," -- heady words for a player who has lost just eight games since saving a match point in the third set of her second-round win over another Grand Slam champion, Naomi Osaka.
After dropping just 10 points in her 6-0, 6-0 fourth round against Anastasia Potapova, Swiatek extended her run of consecutive games won at Roland Garros to 20 before Vondrousova held in her first service game of the second set. Previously, the Czech had two game points in the fourth game of the opener -- a six-deuce affair in which Swiatek eventually broke for a second time on her fifth opportunity of the game.
Vondrousova's only opportunity to take a lead came at 1-1 in the second set. A forehand winner gave her a break point at 30-40 after she initially led 0-30, but Swiatek turned the chance aside with a pinpoint second-ball backhand winner.
"I'm happy that my game is getting better and better every day and I [felt] pretty confident today," Swiatek said.
"I try not to really focus on the scores," she continued. "Sometimes I even forget what the score is, honestly. Just, you know, focusing -- I mean, I'm keeping myself busy in terms of thinking about technique and tactics and what I would do with the next point. Because of that, I don't really get myself, allow myself to have time to drift off and think about other stuff.
"Obviously it's not easy, and it's not like I'm always able to do that, but usually when I don't think about the score, I can reset after each point and start the second point from the beginning with the clean sheet, it's the best kind of match for me."
Swiatek has won 10 of her 11 prior matches with Gauff, including all four they've played on clay. In two previous Roland Garros matches between the two -- in the 2022 final and the 2023 quarterfinals -- Swiatek has lost just 10 games.
Not going to lie I really wanted Ons Jabeur to win because they haven't met in a few years and it would have made it interesting. The variety would have brought something new to the table.
As good as having rivalries is I'm a little bit tired of this particular one (at least on clay) if I'm honest.
Obviously I never discount any of Iga's opponents, but just speaking from a viewer perspective it doesn't offer anything new.
As for Iga's performance today, there's not much to say saving much point in round 2 against Osaka has really freed her up and now she's just playing with house money.
And really enjoying herself which is good to see.
4th semi at Roland Garros in the last 5 years. Dominance.
6-0 - Iga Swiatek is the first player to win the opening set with a 6-0 scoreline at the French Open in QF and onwards against a top-10 player since Serena Williams in 2013 vs Sara Errani. Pitiless.
3(1) - Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff are the second pair in the Open Era to face each other in 3+ consecutive years in the Women's Singles QF onwards at RG, after Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert (four, 1984-87). Thread.
3 - Iga Swiatek is the first player to win three consecutive sets with a 6-0 scoreline at the Roland Garros since ... Iga Swiatek in 2023 (vs Claire Liu and Xinyu Wang). Obsession.
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