Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff lay down French Open markers as Carlos Alcaraz steps it up

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Iga Swiatek had a double bagel for breakfast in Paris, trouncing Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0 to reach the quarter-finals of the French Open.

The three-time champion took to the court an hour early at 11am local time as organisers attempt to get the schedule back on track following consistent rain delays that have seen the tournament dubbed ‘The Drench Open’.

And Swiatek did her part as she took just 40 minutes, one of the shortest matches in Roland Garros history, to dispatch the Russian.

She hit just two unforced errors to Potapova’s 19 and won 94 per cent of points on her first serve. Out of the 58 points played in the match, 23-year-old Potapova won just 10.

“I was just really focused, in the zone and not really looking at the score, and yeah it went pretty quickly, pretty weird,” said Swiatek. “Because we played really early with the open roof it’s always a bit different but it’s still not too warm. It doesn’t feel like summer in Europe but we’ll see what it’s going to be like in two days.”

Swiatek will next face reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova, who continued her serene progress by downing Olga Danilovic of Serbia 6-4, 6-2.

Coco Gauff was in no mood to hang around either. The US Open champion and third seed, who was on Court Phillipe-Chatrier straight after Swiatek, swept past Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-1, 6-2.

“Usually if you’re after her [Swiatek], you know it’s probably going to be a quick match,” said Gauff. “So I figured the match would probably go an hour and 15 minutes, an hour at the quickest. I definitely wasn’t expecting 40 minutes!

“It didn’t really affect me much because I kind of knew. We planned for it. It’s one of those things that you kind of plan for, the fastest-case scenario. I didn’t feel affected by how fast it went.”

On the men’s side of the draw, Carlos Alcaraz fired a warning to the rest of French Open field that he is getting better and better. The Spanish third seed dropped only seven games as he dispatched Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 to expertly navigate a potential banana skin and reach the quarter-finals.

Alcaraz, looking for a first French Open title, arrived at Roland Garros with a lingering forearm injury and having not played a match in three weeks. But this is the man who pitched up at Queen’s Club last year having only ever played six matches on grass and ended up winning Wimbledon.

“The most important thing is to believe in myself,” he said. “It doesn’t matter that I don’t have too many matches on my back and that I didn’t come with a lot of rhythm. After every practice and every match I’m getting better and better and that was easy for me. On Philippe-Chatrier it is easy for me to play and it is better to get to 100 per cent.”

Alcaraz will face ninth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the last eight. Tsitsipas fell a set behind and faced three set points in the second against Matteo Arnaldi but as the Italian began to run out of steam, the Greek star stepped on the gas and wrapped up a 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-2, 6-2 victory.