JAKARTA - Four-time Grand Slam champion on the clay court Roland Garros Iga Swiatek was eliminated in the fourth round of the 2026 French Open after losing to world number 15 Marta Kostyuk, Sunday.
Kostyuk, who broke Swiatek's serve six times, headed to the quarterfinals in Paris for the first time with a 7-5, 6-1 victory.
"He didn't make it too difficult for me with the first serve today," Kostyuk said after the match, quoted by Antara from the WTA.
"I just returned all the serves, and it's not easy to play against someone who returns all your serves and puts a lot of pressure on you on the second serve."
Swiatek's weakness was 39 unforced errors, three times as many as her 13 winners, and a 45 percent winning rate for the first service point.
"As the match went on, he felt more and more pressure," Kostyuk said.
"So the serve becomes more desperate in the sense that he's going to serve harder or make more double faults or actually serve slower, so I have more time to get forward."
Kostyuk remains undefeated on clay this season. He has a record of 15-0 in WTA Tour tournaments, with two titles, plus his victory in the Billie Jean King Cup in April, a record of 16-0.
The Ukrainian has reached her third WTA clay court quarterfinal this season in addition to Rouen and Madrid. Previously, she only reached two quarter finals in her career, namely Istanbul 2021 and Stuttgart 2024.
Kostyuk became the fifth tennis player of this century to win his first 16 matches on clay, joining Venus Williams (2004), Serena Williams. (2012, 2023), Justine Henin (2005) and Swiatek (2022).
Kostyuk now has a 6-3 record against top 10 players this season, with only Elina Svitolina and Elena Rybakina having more wins, seven each.
Previously, world number three Swiatek had found his rhythm again after recruiting Francisco Roig. However, the Polish player was unable to ward off Kostyuk who was in the best form of his life by winning titles in Rouen and Madrid.
"I think the serve is the most complicated shot," Swiatek said.
"If there's something that will be a little bit messy under pressure, I think it's the serve, then the movement, and then hitting it all wrong. I think that happened today."
Next in the quarterfinals, Kostyuk will meet compatriot Svitolina who defeated Swiss Belinda Bencic with a comeback victory 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.
Despite losing the first set, Svitolina looked dominant in the rest of the match, winning the last seven games including a clean sweep in the third set.
Svitolina, 31, became the oldest player since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach the singles quarterfinals in Rome and Roland Garros in the same season.
"I feel that when you play in the later stages of the tournament, you have to give yourself a good chance to play, to compete," said Svitolina.
"I managed it. I'm very happy with my performance, I'm a good competitor."
Kostyuk and Svitolina share victories in their two meetings. Kostyuk won in Toronto in 2024 and Svitolina won the first meeting at the 2018 Australian Open.
This time, Kostyuk will reach her first Grand Slam semifinal, while Svitolina is aiming for her second semifinal this season.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
