PARIS — Top-ranked Iga Swiatek has won her 31st consecutive match and is into the fourth round at Roland Garros for the fourth time in four appearances with a sometimes-shaky 6-3, 7-5 victory over Danka Kovinic.
Swiatek, the 2020 French Open champion, has now collected 48 of the past 49 sets she has played. Her winning streak is the longest in women’s tennis since Serena Williams won 34 in a row in 2013.
The other two remaining top-10 women’s seeds — No. 3 Paula Badosa and No. 7 Aryna Sabalenka — both lost, marking the third time in the Open Era (since 1968) that one top 10 singles seed reached the round of 16 at a major. The others were the 1998 French Open (men, No. 3 Marcelo Rios) and 2018 Wimbledon (women, No. 7 Karolina Pliskova).
FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Men | Women | TV Schedule
Swiatek improved her career record at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament to 17-2, a winning percentage of .895.
This one was not entirely smooth sailing for Swiatek against the 95th-ranked Kovinic, however.
Swiatek’s forehand was a particular trouble spot: That stroke was responsible for 17 of her 23 unforced errors.
The 20-year-old from Poland dropped four straight games to trail 5-4 in the second set before righting herself and claiming the last three to wrap up the win in 90 minutes.
Kovinic was playing in the third round at a Grand Slam tournament for the second time. The other was at the Australian Open in January, when she lost to eventual champion Ash Barty.
Barty retired in March and was replaced at No. 1 in the WTA rankings by Swiatek.
The first four times Daniil Medvedev played at the French Open, he left without winning a match.
Now he is into the fourth round for the second straight year.
The reigning U.S. Open champion, who is seeded second in Paris, advanced Saturday with a 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 victory over No. 28 Miomir Kecmanovic.
The 26-year-old Russian has not dropped a set through three matches this week. He faces 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic or 37-year-old French wild-card entry Gilles Simon next.
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!
More: Olympics
U.S. men’s hockey team loses 11th consecutive world championship semifinal At USA Track and Field 10,000m Champs, a 10-year wait and a trip and fall Erik Kynard Jr., Olympic high jump champion, sanctioned while retired
French Open: Iga Swiatek extends win streak, rest of top 10 loses originally appeared on NBCSports.com