Nottingham Guardian - Swiatek and Sabalenka set up French Open semi-final clash as Musetti reaches last four

Swiatek, the fifth seed, got past Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-1, 7-5, after top women's seed Sabalenka won a tense quarter-final against Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.

Eighth-seed Musetti won 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 against 15th seed Frances Tiafoe after over two hours and 45 minutes of battle on Court Philippe Chatrier.

The 23-year-old achieved his second Grand Slam semi-final after Wimbledon last year.

"(Aryna) has been having a great season so I'm not going to lie, it is going to be a tough match. But I'm happy for the challenge," said Swiatek, after reeling off her 26th win in a row at the French Open.

Both players have shared the number one ranking between them since April 2022.

Sabalenka ended Swiatek's 11-month reign as world number one last October but the Pole leads 8-4 in their previous meetings.

World number five Swiatek has been struggling for her best form and has not reached a final since winning the French Open title last year.

But she gave 13th seed Svitolina little opportunity on her favoured clay surface, breaking in the fourth game to ease through the first set.

The pair exchanged consecutive breaks of serve early in the second set, before Swiatek forced the breakthrough at 5-5 with a powerful forehand down the line.

She then sealed the win with back-to-back aces.

"Even though the first set, the score looks pretty straightforward, it wasn't," said Swiatek.

"I had to fight for every point."

Swiatek is aiming to become the first woman to win four straight Roland Garros crowns since Suzanne Lenglen 102 years ago.

- 'Fresh and ready to battle' -

Earlier, reigning US Open champion Sabalenka defied the windy conditions and Zheng to avenge her recent loss to the Chinese star in Rome.

"The last tournament I was pretty exhausted," said Sabalenka.

"Today I was more fresh, I was ready to battle."

Sabalenka once again got the upper hand over Zheng, who had been on a winning streak of 10 matches on the Paris clay after her run to Olympic gold last year.

Zheng broke and led 4-2 in the first set. But numerous unforced errors -- 31 in total -- allowed the Belarusian to come back.

The second set was also tight before Sabalenka broke back to lead 4-3, taking advantage of her opponent's errors.

"I gave her the chance, so easy," said Zheng, who has lost seven times in eight meetings with Sabalenka, including in last year's Australian Open final.

Madrid Open champion Sabalenka feels she is ready to go all the way in Paris, where her previous best performance was reaching the semi-finals two years ago.

"It's high-level matches. I'm super excited to go out there and to fight and to do everything I need to get the win," said Sabalenka of her tie against Swiatek.

Musetti will take on either second-seeded Spaniard Alcaraz or 12th seed Tommy Paul for a spot in the title match.

Musetti's serve proved to be a major weapon on the day as he fired down eight aces with an 81 percent success rate on his first serve in gusty conditions in Paris.

He also saved two of the three break points engineered by Tiafoe, who had 51 unforced errors to the Italian's 32.

Musetti won eight of the final 10 games to clinch victory in style.

Alcaraz is through to the last eight for the fourth year running and aims to become the third man this century to defend his title, after Gustavo Kuerten and Rafael Nadal.

The 22-year-old has dropped a set in each of the past three rounds but holds a 4-2 career record against Paul, who Alcaraz beat in the quarter-finals of the Paris Olympics on the way to a silver medal last August.

O.Somerville--NG