Paris — Elina Svitolina summoned up her Ukrainian fighting spirit to battle from the brink of defeat and beat 2024’s runner-up Jasmine Paolini 4-6 7-6(6) 6-1 to book a place in the French Open quarterfinals after an entertaining match on Sunday.
Victory came the hard way for Svitolina, who saved three match points in the second set to force a decider in which she raised her level to earn a last-eight encounter with defending champion Iga Swiatek, who later beat Elena Rybakina.
“I still can’t believe this match finished my way, my head is still in it, in a big battle,” said 30-year-old Ukrainian Svitolina, who shed tears of joy after the win.
“Jasmine was playing really well and it was really tough. In the end, I’m happy I could stay composed and fight till the very end. Here I am in the next round.
“I had to be aggressive, stay focused on my gameplan and take small opportunities to win the second set. It was one or two points that decided it and I'm pleased I could win it. In the third set I played really well to close the match.”
Fourth-seeded Paolini twice swapped breaks with Svitolina before holding to love in the ninth game of the match and pouncing to claim the opening set with a scorching forehand winner in the next game.
The diminutive Italian grabbed a 3-1 lead in the second set but 13th seed Svitolina did not let her challenge fade on Court Philippe Chatrier as she recovered two breaks and saved two match points to make it 5-5 before forcing a tiebreak.
The 29-year-old Paolini responded bravely after going 4-1 down and wasted another match point as Svitolina went on to level the contest and pump her fists to loud cheers, before using the momentum to get her nose in front in the decider.
Svitolina pulled away by winning four games in a row before her opponent got on the board and she promptly completed the victory with a searing backhand winner to reach the quarterfinals of Roland Garros for a fifth time.
The plight of her war-torn country after Russia’s 2022 invasion of its neighbour was firmly on Svitolina's mind as she reflected on her battling victory in a press conference later, saying she had to live with difficult news almost daily.
“The last few months have been really tough for Ukrainian people and the last few weeks have been awful,” said Svitolina, who has raised $1m for her people in the last few years.
Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen continued her French Open campaign in battling fashion as the Chinese eighth seed overcame Russia’s Liudmila Samsonova 7-6(5) 1-6 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals.
Zheng swapped a pair of breaks with her 19th-seeded opponent in the opening set and fought back from 4-2 down in the tiebreak to get her nose in front before allowing big-hitting Samsonova to hold in a tense first game of the second set.
The Russian broke to love in the next game and struck again later to draw level in the match, leaving Zheng with a big fight on her hands to reach her maiden Roland Garros quarterfinal at the site of her Paris Games triumph in 2024.
Zheng showed the mettle of a gold medallist, however, as the 22-year-old broke for a 4-2 lead and shrugged off a poor service game to get ahead 5-3 before securing victory when Samsonova made an unforced error.
“Right now I feel incredible because I’ve been dreaming of reaching this stage, it did not happen in 2023 and 2024. I have no words to describe my emotions right now,” said Zheng.
Reuters
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