French Open: Elena Rybakina into quarter-finals with straight-sets win over Elina Svitolina at Roland-Garros

ByOli Gent

Updated 03/06/2024 at 11:18 GMT

Elena Rybakina is safely into the quarter-finals of the French Open with a comfortable straight-sets win over Elina Svitolina. The world No. 4 was posed few problems by the Ukrainian 15th seed, and although Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion was not at her best, it was Svitolina's inconsistency that was the big difference. She will play either Elina Avanesyan or Jasmine Paolini in the quarters.

Elena Rybakina booked her place in the French Open quarter-finals with a routine 6-4 6-3 victory over Elina Svitolina. 

The fourth seed was never at her best, but she didn’t need to be, such was the regularity of her Ukrainian opponent’s unforced errors. 

The pair traded breaks in the opening two games of the match on Court Philippe-Chatrier, before a sweeping forehand winner from the Kazakh world No. 4 put her in the driving seat again at 3-2. 

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Some heavy hitting from Rybakina was enough to keep her nose in front, and a kick serve that was returned long by Svitolina closed out the first set. 

Rybakina upped her levels in the second, breaking immediately, before a volley put-away - a common theme in this match - sealed the double-break for the 2022 Wimbledon champion.

A surge of energy from Svitolina, the world No. 15, saw her break back to love in the following game, and a strong hold brought her back within one at 4-3, but Rybakina used every ounce of her experience to reach the last eight in Paris for the second time in her career; a final Svitolina backhand looping wide.

She will play either Elina Avanesyan or Jasmine Paolini in the quarter-finals.

'Effortless' Rybakina hits huge winner to break Svitolina's serve

Svitolina led 2-1 in the pair’s head-to-head coming into this last-16 encounter, with the Ukrainian winning their most recent meeting at the Tokyo Olympics. 

However, since then, Rybakina has become a Grand Slam champion, and reached the final of the Australian Open last year. 

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Her newfound expertise on the big stage showed, and it looked as if it were Svitolina who was the less-used to the pressure of the later rounds of a Slam. 

Both women couldn’t seem to shake errors out of their games throughout the match, and the first set in particular became about who could make fewer. 

It proved to be Rybakina, but that wasn’t before service breaks were traded in the opening two games of the match, decided by forehands that looped long from both players. 

It seemed as though the Kazakh had lost her touch within three games after starting the match out so well as Svitolina held to love, but Rybakina rediscovered her accuracy in the fifth game, dictating with the forehand and sneaking into the net to finish off points with strong volleys. She earned the break of serve with a big forehand winner. 

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Another forehand winner cross-court was the perfect way to supplement the break, but she was threatened at 4-3 with Svitolina having a break-back point which she could not convert, as Rybakina stepped inside the baseline to run the Ukrainian from side to side. 

Her serve was falling into place as she saw out the first set, and Rybakina, a quarter-finalist at Roland-Garros once before in 2021, turned up the heat at the start of the second, hitting deep and into the corners. 

Svitolina’s unforced-error count continued to rise, but Rybakina’s did too, as she missed the chance for the double-break at 2-1 with her big groundstrokes narrowly missing the lines, but eventually, she got her reward in the place where she feels most comfortable: on top of the net, tucking away a volley. 

Svitolina threatened a late revival as she finally found some form and a few winners, but any lingering hope was dashed on Rybakina’s second match point, as one final error from the Ukrainian ended her clay-court campaign. 

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“Really happy with the performance,” Rybakina said afterwards.
“Elina is a tough opponent. We’ve played a couple of times and she’s a great fighter, and I’ve had difficult matches against her. I’m really happy with the way I played and served today. 

“We work a lot and we’re always trying to adjust [my] technique. On clay, it’s more complicated for me with the movements as I’m tall, but overall, we’re doing a good job, and I’m really proud of the way I’ve improved over the last few years.”

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