PARIS (Reuters) – World number one Iga Swiatek celebrated her 23rd birthday in style with an emphatic 6-4 6-2 victory over Marie Bouzkova to move into the last 16 at the French Open on Friday.
Swiatek survived a major scare in the previous round when she saved a match point against Naomi Osaka before sealing a hard-fought victory, but against Bouzkova she picked apart the Czech player’s serve with some precision hitting.
The defending champion showed no signs of a hangover from the three-setter with Osaka and consolidated an early break to go 3-1 up in the opening set but Bouzkova fought back from 5-2 down to give the Pole a workout.
However, Swiatek switched gears and carefully constructed her points, using the angles well to make Bouzkova run from one corner of Court Philippe-Chatrier to the other, firing 18 winners in total in the opening set.
The top seed continued to dominate in the second set as she effortlessly turned defence into offence on Bouzkova’s serve, breaking twice to race into a 4-0 lead before the Czech managed to get on the board.
Bouzkova saved a match point on her serve but she only delayed the inevitable as Swiatek sealed progress with a searing winner down the line.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris)
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