By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Serena Williams powered past Elina Svitolina, 6-1, 6-1, into her 10th Roland Garros quarterfinal. Timea Bacsinszky bounced ninth-seeded Venus Williams from the field.
Photo credit: Laurin Amelie/FFT
Fourteen years after they faced off in the 2002 French Open final, Venus Williams and Serena Williams staged a family reunion playing doubles together in Paris last week.
Today, the sisters' paths parted in the singles field.
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Reigning champion Serena Williams stormed past Elina Svitolina, 6-1, 6-1, scoring her ninth straight win to surge into the Roland Garros quarterfinals for the 10th time.
Determined to play with more command than she showed in her 6-4, 7-6 (10) third-round victory over Kristina Mladenovic, Williams whipped eight aces, denied seven of eight break points and cracked 27 winners compared to 10 for her opponent in a 62-minute thrashing.
"I think it's definitely a whole new ballgame," the top seed said afterward. "When I don't play well, however, I didn't play my best in the third round and I really wanted to come out and do a lot better and prove that I can do better than that. So that's something I really wanted to do today."
The red clay was a proving ground for Serena and a departure zone for Venus Williams.
No. 8-seeded Timea Bacsinszky dismissed ninth-seeded Venus, 6-2, 6-4, to set up a quarterfinal against Kiki Bertens.
"She played really well. I respect that she played really well," Venus said. "The first few games she made some errors, and in the last 12 games I made all the errors. You know, she played to win, and I give her credit for really competing well."
Bidding for her first Top 10 win of the season, the 35-year-old Venus could not dent Bacsinszky's varied spins and ball-control baseline play.
Bacsinszky, who fell to Serena Williams in the 2015 semifinals, won three of the last four games to deny Venus. The 26-year-old Swiss has not dropped a set en route to the quarterfinals and received parting praise from the former finalist.
"I wanted to play better today. The most disappointing part is just not playing well, and that's disappointing," Venus said. "I give credit to my opponent, and it was just a frustrating day of kind of like balls not going in or hitting the net tape, so it's frustrating for me.
"But, you know, I competed as well as I could out there and she played a smart match. That definitely added to my troubles."
The 58th-ranked Bertens beat 15th-seeded Madison Keys, 7-6 (4), 6-3, to reach the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of her career.
Rain has wreaked havoc with the schedule. Asked if she's concerned by the prospect of possibly playing four days in a row to defend her title, Serena said she's done it before.
"When we play regular tournaments you play four, five matches in a row. It's what happens," Serena said. "In Rome I played four in a row? Five? I don't know. But, you know, in Miami and Indian Wells you just play every day. It's something you just get used to. It's totally fine I think for me and for everyone."
Serena sees similarities in competitive spirit with quarterfinal opponent Yulia Putintseva, who surprised 12th-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro, 7-5, 7-5, to advance to her first career Grand Slam quarterfinal.
"I have actually played her a couple of times, and most recently in Indian Wells. She's a tough player," Serena said of Putintseva. "She's really hungry. I feel like she gives 200% on every single point. She's a fighter.
"I think, you know, I feel like I'm a little bit that way myself, too. I give everything on every point. I'm a fighter. I think, you know, she and I both are just trying to win this match to go to the next round."
Venus sees big things for little sister, who is three wins away from collecting her 22nd Grand Slam championship, which would equal Steffi Graf's Open Era record.
"I think she's played an amazing year. A lot of finals, not as many wins as she wanted, but she ran into some players who couldn't miss," Venus said of Serena. "That happens all the time when you're No. 1 in the world. Every match she plays is usually against a player who is at their best. So to be able to play that well, day in and day out, is a major accomplishment."