Simona Halep of Romania hits a return during the women's singles 4th round match between Simona Halep of Romania and Iga Swiatek of Poland in the French Open tennis tournament 2020 at Roland Garros in Paris, France, Oct. 4, 2020. (Photo by Aurelien Morissard/Xinhua)
PARIS, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Top seed Simona Halep's 17-game winning streak was snapped on Sunday at Roland Garros, as the Romanian ended her run for a third major title 6-1, 6-2 following a devastating performance from Iga Swiatek in the women's singles fourth-round match.
The 19-year-old Pole needed just 68 minutes to avenge her exit to the 2018 champion last year in Paris at the same stage.
"I don't know what happened actually, I felt like I was playing perfectly, I was so focused the whole match, even I am surprised that I can do that," said the 54th-ranked Swiatek, who fired 30 winners and won 81 percent of her first-serve to wrap up the victory.
"I wasn't experienced at all then, that was my first match on a big stadium like that, so I was pretty stressed," Swiatek said of her fourth-round loss to Halep last year.
"Since then, I've made huge progress because I've played a few big matches, against Simona, against Caroline Wozniacki and Naomi Osaka, and I think it helped me a lot and now I feel like I can handle the pressure," Swiatek added.
Halep didn't play at her best, especially when facing a firing teenager who combined her drop shot and backhand so perfectly throughout the match.
"She played unbelievable today and she was everywhere and she hit all the balls in a very strong, very powerful way," the world No.2 said after the match. "It was a little bit cold and I couldn't be at my best."
"I knew she was going to be aggressive. I knew that she's playing this way. Today it worked really well for her," Halep added. "At this level, nobody surprises anybody anymore because everyone has a big level and it depends on the day that you are."
Swiatek is to face another unexpected winner from the fourth round - Martina Trevisan, as the world No. 159 stunned another title favorite Kiki Bertens 6-4, 6-4 in a later match on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.
"I'm living in a dream. I came here two weeks ago to my Roland-Garros qualifying but today I'm here in the quarterfinals," said the 26-year-old Italian qualifier, who hadn't played a Grand Slam main draw before this year's Australian Open, where she suffered an early first-round exit.
On the men's side, 12-time Roland Garros winner Rafael Nadal continued his run after dropping only four games to complete a 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 win over American youngster Sebastian Korda, son of 1998 Australian Open winner Petr Korda. Enditem
