Spaniard Garbine Muguruza laid down an impressive marker at the French Open as she overpowered ninth seed Elina Svitolina 6-3 6-3 on Friday to set up a fourth-round clash with last year’s runner-up Sloane Stephens.
The 19th seed has struggled for consistency this year, hence her low seeding, but Roland Garros tends to bring the best out of her.
And so it proved again as the 2016 champion outplayed the Ukrainian on a sunny Court Philippe Chatrier.
“I feel very good in this tournament. I have always loved it since I was a little girl,” Muguruza, who improved her career record at the French Open to 27-5, told reporters.
“I also love the clay. Yeah, I don’t know what it is about the French Open that always gives me a nice mood, and my tennis develops much better.”
The tall Muguruza made her intentions clear from the start, planting herself on the baseline and blazing away with her baseline power-game that Svitolina struggled to contain.
She did make 29 unforced errors, compared with 23 winners – a consequence of the aggressive tactics she employed, but key to her domination were the 26 errors she pressurised Svitolina into making.
Seventh seed Stephens, a specialist counter-puncher, will provide another tough test in the last 16, however.
The 26-year-old produced a gritty display to quell the challenge of Polona Hercog as the American sealed a 6-3 5-7 6-4 victory.
Earlier, Petra Martic pulled off the biggest upset of the French Open so far by knocking out second seed Karolina Pliskova.
Anastasija Sevastova, seeded 12th, rallied past Belgium’s Elise Mertens 6-7 (7-3) 6-4 11-9 in a clash that lasted three hours and 18 minutes on Court Suzanne-Lenglen.
Also advancing to the next round were Lesia Tsurenko, who overcame Aleksandra Krunic 5-7 7-5 11-9.
Sydney-born Johanna Konta became the first British woman to reach the fourth round of the French Open for 36 years by breezing past Viktoria Kuzmova.
Not since Jo Durie in 1992 had any British woman made round three, and Konta’s 6-2 6-1 victory saw her emulate Durie and Anne Hobbs, who both made the last 16 in 1983, with the former going all the way to the semi-finals.
The 26th seed will play Croatia’s 24th seed Donna Vekic on Sunday.