Svitolina saves three match points against Paolini and reaches the quarter-finals at Roland-Garros

© AFP

Adrien Guyot

le 01/06/2025 à 12h43

2 min to read

Paolini Roland Garros Svitolina

On Court Philippe-Chatrier, Jasmine Paolini and Elina Svitolina are vying for the first ticket to the quarter-finals in the women's draw. Both women are having a very good clay-court season, marked by a title at the WTA 1000 in Rome for the Italian and a title in Rouen as well as a semi-final in Madrid for the Ukrainian. This matchup is enticing on paper and lived up to its promise on the court.

From the start of the match, both women had clear intentions, namely to take control of the proceedings. Impressive in the early stages, Paolini constructed well-crafted points and hit several winners to quickly take the lead and go up 3-0. But, little by little, the Ukrainian got into the match, made up for her deficit, and put pressure on Paolini.

The two women offered an enormous battle at the end of the set, but the world number 4, always ahead in this set, played the important points better. Penalized by a faulty serve, the world number 14 never found a way to take the lead on the scoreboard.

It was therefore logical that the finalist from last year got ahead, even though her opponent didn't fall short over the entire set. The second set started on the same foundation, and the Italian again took the lead with a break advantage.

Despite her difficulties in most of her service games, Svitolina hung in there, made up her deficit to come back to 4-3, then to 5-4. As the former world number 3 was serving to stay in the match, she saved two match points before finally tying it at 5-5.

Ultimately, Svitolina was able to showcase her well-known mental strength. While leading 4 points to 1 in the tie-break, Svitolina saw Paolini come back, and the latter got a third match point, perfectly saved by Svitolina. The Italian finished this decisive game poorly with two unforced errors, thus giving the second set to her opponent.

In the third set, Svitolina rode the momentum from the end of the second set and pulled ahead with a double break lead. Despite a slight rally from her opponent, the Ukrainian capitalized on her opponent's unforced errors to soar to victory after saving three match points (4-6, 7-6, 6-1 in 2h24).

She is the first female player in the draw to reach the quarter-finals this year and joins this stage of the competition at Porte d'Auteuil for the fifth time in her career after 2015, 2017, 2020, and 2023.

For a place in the semi-finals, she will face the titleholder Iga Swiatek or Elena Rybakina, who will face off right after this match on Court Philippe-Chatrier. The Ukrainian has never, for the moment, played the semi-finals in the French capital.