PARIS (Reuters) – Third seed Elina Svitolina ended the run of local hope Caroline Garcia in the French Open with a 6-1 6-3 win on Sunday to move into her third quarter-final at Roland Garros.
On a day that the women’s draw lost top seed Simona Halep and fifth seed Kiki Bertens, Svitolina, who reached the last eight in 2015 and 2017, put in a solid performance to be the highest-ranked player remaining in the claycourt Grand Slam.
Garcia had come from a set and a break down to win her past three meetings against fellow 26-year-old Svitolina, but there was no such repeat as the Ukrainian broke her opponent’s serve six times to complete her victory in 63 minutes.
Svitolina converted her first match point when Garcia sent a forehand wide, and she will play the winner of the match between Argentine qualifier Nadia Podoroska and Czech Barbora Krejcikova for a place in the semi-finals.
(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
