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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Matt Majendie

French Open 2023: Ons Jabeur eases into quarter-finals as Iga Swiatek sets up Coco Gauff clash

Last year’s Wimbledon runner-up Ons Jabeur booked her place in a first French Open quarter-final with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Bernarda Pera, while Coco Gauff will get a shot at revenge against Iga Swiatek.

Jabeur, who was a surprise first-round casualty at Roland Garros a year ago, has not dropped a set in four matches to date in Paris.

American Pera was the underdog throughout as she failed to hold a single service game, although still managed to get regular breaks off the Jabeur serve in both sets.

Despite her own serving issues, the No7 seed proved a class apart throughout to book her place in the last eight of the tournament.

Following the win, Jabeur said: “I wouldn’t say it was easy. It was very tough and I’m so happy.

“It took me three times to get to the quarter-finals and I’m very happy to make my best result here at the French Open. Hopefully I can continue playing well and we will see what happens.”

Jabeur will take on Beatriz Haddad Maia in the quarter-finals after she came through a marathon match against Sara Sorribes just seven minutes shy of four hours. The 6-7, 6-3, 7-5 result makes her the first Brazilian woman into a Grand Slam quarter-final since 1968.

Gauff sealed her place in the last-eight in Paris for a third year in a row with a 7-5, 6-2 victory over Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. The American teenager was beaten in the French Open final last year by Swiatek, and will come up against the world number one again in the quarter-finals.

Swiatek was 5-1 up on Lesia Tsurenko in the first set when the Ukrainian was forced to retire, meaning the top seed has dropped just nine games across her four wins at Roland Garros this year.

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