By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Sunday June 5, 2021
The Kids are alright at Roland-Garros.
Coco Gauff stretched her winning streak to eight and Iga Swiatek stretched hers to nine as three players aged 20-and-under surged into the round of 16 at Roland-Garros on Saturday.
Gauff, who moved through when compatriot Jennifer Brady retired trailing 6-1, will face Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in the round of 16.
The 17-year-old, the youngest player in either draw in Paris, is fresh off her first clay title in Parma a week ago, and carrying an impressive 15-3 record on clay in 2021.
Gauff has reached the second week in Paris for the first time and will bid to reach the quarter-finals of a major for the first time against Jabeur, who defeated Poland’s Magda Linette, 3-6, 6-0, 6-1.
Swiatek, the Rome champion, stretched her overall winning streak to nine victories by racking her tenth consecutive triumph in Paris. The 2020 champion has won 20 consecutive sets on the clay but had to squirm a bit in the first set of her 7-6(4), 6-0 victory over Anett Kontaveit of Estonia on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Swiatek actually trailed in the opening set, 2-0, 3-1 and 4-2, before finally breaking back for 4-4 and later capturing the tiebreaker. It was a mature effort from the Pole against a player that was 2-0 against her entering the match.
“I was just focused on breaking her basically, breaking her serve, and I knew that I have weapons to do that,” she said. “She had actually one game when she played three aces. For sure it's impossible to break her in that kind of game. But I knew if I'm going to place my return like really good and let her move from the beginning of the rally, then it's going to be good.”
18-year-old Marta Kostyuk joined Gauff as the other teenager in the sweet 16. She powered past Varvara Gracheva, 6-1, 6-2. The Ukrainian has yet to drop a set.
“It's like the first time I'm playing a Slam being like pretty high ranked because all the other times I was like—one time I was 500th in the world (as a 15-year-old at the Australian Open in 2018), the other time I was 130 in the world. It feels a little bit different, but it also feels different in the way that I'm not coming here as like a talented young girl like beating high-ranked players, higher ranked players. I'm actually the one this time that is supposed to win.
Kostyuk will face Swiatek in the fourth round.
Honestly in my head I don't feel like I'm in fourth round at all. It's just another win for me. It's just another match for me on Monday. But it honestly doesn't feel like I'm in the fourth round. Like I don't even have the feeling.
The sweet 16 is set on the women’s side, with No.4 seed Sofia Kenin the highest-ranked player left in the draw.