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Ruud, Rune advance to French Open 4th round, Swiatek shines

Paris, Jun 3 (EFE).- Casper Ruud and Holger Rune won their respective matches Saturday to advance to the fourth round of the French Open, while the defending champion on the women’s side, Iga Swiatek, rolled to a 6-0, 6-0 victory over Wang Xinyu to book her spot in the round of 16.

The Polish world No. 1 also saw a rival eliminated, as fourth-ranked Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan withdrew from the Grand Slam event ahead of her scheduled third-round match against Sara Sorribes Tormo.

Swiatek, 22, is aiming to win the event for the third time in four years and has lost just eight games in her first three matches of the 2023 tournament.

“For sure, I am happy. It was a very strong performance from me, and I was happy I was disciplined and took care of everything,” she said after beating Wang.

Swiatek will face Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine in the fourth round ahead of a potential quarterfinal clash with world No. 6 Coco Gauff, last year’s runner-up at Roland Garros.

The 19-year-old American bested Russia Mirra Andreeva 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-1 on Saturday to book her spot in the fourth round, where her opponent will be Anna Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia.

Andreeva, who turned 16 on April 29, defeated two top-20 players to reach the last 16 at the 2023 Madrid Open and gave Gauff a battle.

World No. 7 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia got past Serbia’s Olga Danilovic, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 on Saturday and will battle Bernarda Pera of the United States in the fourth round.

On the men’s side, Zhang Zhizhen of China pushed Ruud, ranked seventh in the world, to four sets, 4-6, 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.

In the fourth round, the Norwegian, who has the most wins on clay since 2020, will face the player with the second-most over the same period, Nicolas Jarry of Chile, who defeated American Marcos Giron 6-2, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3 on Saturday to reach the last 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career.

Danish world No. 6 Rune dominated Argentina’s Genaro Olivieri 6-4, 6-1, 6-3 to set up a fourth-round duel with another Argentine, Francisco Cerundolo, who defeated ninth-ranked American Taylor Fritz 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-5.

Tomas Etcheverry of Argentina upset Croatian world No. 15 Borna Coric 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-2, to advance to the fourth round. EFE lmpg/dr

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