Top-seeded Simona Halep loses in straight sets to Iga Swiatek

Polish teenager Iga Swiatek ousted the 2018 champion and top-seeded Simona Halep from the French Open, winning 6-1, 6-2 to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Swiatek, the only teenager who reached the fourth round, avenged a crushing defeat by Halep at the same stage last year. The Romanian won that match 6-1, 6-0, in just 45 minutes.

Swiatek turned the tables this time. She never faced a break point and punished Halep with her crunching baseline shots and exquisite net play. Swiatek’s win on the Court Philippe Chatrier ended a career-best 17-match winning streak for Halep.

After losing the first set in just 26 minutes and then losing her first service game at the start of the second, Halep fought desperately to reverse the momentum.

She saved four break points in the third game and another five before being broken again in the fifth game.

Swiatek suffered none of the nerves that blunted her powerful tennis in their meeting last year.

“I felt I was playing perfectly,” she said. “Even I am surprised that I could do that.”

Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan kept the upsets coming on Sunday, beating fifth-seeded Kiki Bertens 6-4, 6-4.

Playing in her first French Open and only her second Grand Slam tournament, Trevisan’s reward for ousting her Dutch opponent is a quarterfinal against Swiatek.

Bertens could only watch helplessly as Trevisan sealed the victory with a backhand lob from the baseline that soared over her opponent’s head. The Italian dropped her racket with delight as the ball landed in.

“I’m living in a dream,” Trevisan said. “On my God, I can’t believe it.”

Ranked 159th, Trevisan fell in the first round on her Grand Slam debut, at the Australian Open this year.