Jabeur beats Pera to reach French Open quarters

American teenager Coco Gauff set up a potential rematch of last year’s French Open final with Iga Swiatek by moving into the Roland Garros last eight.

Poland’s Swiatek, going for a third title on the clay, faces Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko later on Monday.

Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur moved into the quarter-finals for the first time with a 6-3 6-1 win over Bernarda Pera.

Jabeur played in the Wimbledon and US Open finals in 2022 but lost in the first round at Roland Garros last year.

Seventh seed Jabeur, 28, will meet Brazilian 14th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia in the last eight after she eliminated Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo.

 

Gauff shows edginess but moves on

On her return to Roland Garros, a year on from her maiden Grand Slam singles final, Gauff said there was “no point in revisiting” last year’s defeat by Swiatek.

Instead, she preferred to “reset” rather than “dwell” on the experience.

What she learned from that loss might become apparent if she does meet world number one Swiatek again.

Gauff has been far from convincing so far in this year’s tournament, twice fighting back from a set down in previous rounds, and also coming through difficult moments against 100th-ranked Schmiedlova.

A strong start saw Gauff move into a 5-2 lead but she became tight trying to close out the first set and Schmiedlova fought back to 5-5.

Schmiedlova lost serve again to give Gauff another chance of wrapping up the opener, this time she took it with a confident hold to love.

Gauff also relinquished an early break in the second set and, after digging deep to hold for 2-2, won the final four games to reach the Roland Garros quarter-finals for the third successive year.

There was more edginess in the final game, however.

Back-to-back double faults created two break points for Schmiedlova and, after showing her resolve to recover, Gauff will know the biggest tests of where her game is are still to come – perhaps against Swiatek on Wednesday.

Jabeur completes sweep of Grand Slam quarter-finals

Jabeur has now reached the quarter-finals in all four Grand Slam events after finally enjoying a deeper run at the major event which she grew up watching as a child.

World number 36 Pera, also 28 and playing in her first Grand Slam last-16 match, struggled on Court Philippe Chatrier and did not hold serve.

Jabeur was not at her fluent best and was herself broken three times in the first set and at the start of the second set, but she raced through the final six games, sealing victory in 63 minutes.

On completing the set of major quarter-finals, she said: “I never thought about something was missing or I didn’t reach all four of them.

“Maybe it’s a good thing. It came and hopefully we’ll set it to all semi-finals and then all finals.”

Haddad Maia, 27, came back from a set down to win 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 7-5 in an epic encounter which lasted three hours and 51 minutes – the longest match on the WTA Tour in 2023.

Haddad Maia was unable to convert three match points in the ninth game of the deciding set and then served for the match before having her serve broken to make it 5-5.

But she then won the next two games to complete the victory.

“I think the emotion was there for both of us,” said Haddad Maia. “I’m very happy and proud that I didn’t give up and pushed until my limit and I think I deserved it because of that.”

Sorribes Tormo, along with partner Marie Bouzkova, were involved in a controversy on Sunday in their women’s doubles last-16 match as they won when opponent Miyu Kato hit a ball girl with a ball and the Japanese player and Indonesia’s Aldila Sutjiadi were disqualified.

Kato was initially given a warning by the umpire but after protests from Sorribes Tormo and Bouzkova, they were disqualified.