The Polish third seed went down 7-5, 6-1 to Marta Kostyuk
\n PARIS
\nFour-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek exited Roland Garros on Sunday as the top seeds continued to fall at the start of the second week, while Alexander Zverev booked his spot in the quarter-finals.
\nThe Polish third seed endured a miserable 25th birthday as she went down 7-5, 6-1 to Madrid Open winner Marta Kostyuk.
\nSince winning Roland Garros in her second appearance at the tournament in 2020, Swiatek had never gone more than two years without hoisting aloft the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen, but after Aryna Sabalenka ended her bid to win a fourth consecutive French Open in the semi-finals last year, she has lost her unbeatable status on clay.
\nIndeed since last winning in Paris in 2024, Swiatek has only lifted three titles in the two subsequent seasons.
\n\u201cIt is harder a bit to handle stress for me in, like, (the) last year,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cSo I feel like today I felt off, you know, and I did mistakes that I didn\u2019t want to do, and I wanted to play safe, but the ball flew everywhere.
\n\u201cSuddenly these feelings came back, and I tried to work on it with my dialogue inside, but it was tough today. Yeah, so it all kind of went drastically down, and I played worse and worse.\u201d
\nAfter breaking Kostyuk in the first set to edge 4-3 ahead, Swiatek\u2019s serve totally deserted her and she failed to hold again as the Ukrainian hit back to claim the opener and then raced through the second frame.
\nFor Kostyuk, reaching a first quarter-final at Roland Garros was just the latest high mark in a fine clay-court season, in which she claimed the 250-level event in Rouen, as well as a first WTA 1000 title in the Spanish capital.
\nElina Svitolina next stands between her compatriot and the last four after she fought back to beat Swiss 11th seed Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.
\nAfter winning a first WTA 1000 title in eight years earlier in May at the Italian Open, Svitolina\u2019s last-eight encounter with Kostyuk will pit against each other the two winners of the main warm-up events to Roland Garros.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s exciting. Definitely she\u2019s been playing really well,\u201d Svitolina said of Kostyuk, who is on a 15-match win streak on the red dirt.
\n\u201cI feel like it\u2019s going to be an exciting battle for Ukraine, as well, you know, that there will be one Ukrainian in the semis.
\n\u2018Handling the situations\u2019
\nSorana Cirstea continued her remarkable renaissance during her farewell season on tour as the 36-year-old bested Chinese world number 148 Wang Xiyu 6-3, 7-6 (7\/4).
\nThe Romanian will face Russian eighth seed Mirra Andreeva in what will be her first quarter-final appearance at the French Open in 17 years.
\nTeenager Andreeva, who defeated 170th-ranked Swiss JilTeichmann in straight sets, will be targeting a second semi-final in three years at Roland Garros.
\nRising Spanish star Rafael Jodar has been no stranger to lengthy matches in his debut Roland Garros campaign but the 19-year-old\u2019s five-set win over fellow countryman Pablo Carreno Bustawas even longer drawn out than it would otherwise have been as the heatwave that defined the first week subsided to rain, which caused brief delays in play.
\nJodar battled back from two sets down to beat the 34-year-old 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.
\nHis next opponent is the highest-ranked man left in the draw and the prime contender to claim a maiden Grand Slam crown, German second seed Zverev.
\nThe 29-year-old three-time major finalist eased through the fourth round with a 7-6 (7\/3), 6-4, 6-1 win over 106th-ranked Dutch lucky loser Jesper de Jong.
\nDespite only dropping a set so far en route to an eighth quarter-final appearance at Roland Garros, Zverev refused to be drawn on the question of finally breaking his Grand Slam duck.
\n\u201cI will focus on the matches that are ahead of me. This is the only thing that I can control,\u201d he insisted.
\n\u201cI feel like I\u2019m handling the situations quite well, and I will do everything possible to continue doing that.\u201d
\nJoao Fonseca, Novak Djokovic\u2019s conqueror in the last 32, felled another big name as he beat two-time French Open finalist Casper Ruud 7-5, 7-6 (10\/8), 5-7, 6-2 in the night session to further confirm his arrival in the big time.
\n\u201cI just try to be me on court, try to be happy, try to hit winners, try to hit good shots, try to be entertaining,\u201d Fonseca, who bludgeoned 51 winners, said.
\nThe Brazilian teenager will next take on fellow first-time Grand Slam quarter-finalist Jakub Mensik, who battled past Andrey Rublev in five sets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Polish third seed went down 7-5, 6-1 to Marta Kostyuk PARIS Four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek exited Roland Garros on Sunday as the top seeds continued to fall at the start of the second week, while Alexander Zverev booked his spot in the quarter-finals. The Polish third seed endured a miserable 25th birthday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n