Aryna Sabalenka powers into French Open fourth round

Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka during her French Open third-round match against Serbia's Olga Danilovic on May 30. PHOTO: REUTERS

UPDATED May 30, 2025, 08:50 PM

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PARIS – World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka’s French Open quest continued as she powered into the fourth round with a 6-2, 6-3 victory against Serbia’s Olga Danilovic on May 30.

The Belarusian dominated her opponent from the start and although she faced some brief resistance in the second set, she easily set up a meeting with 16th seed Amanda Anisimova of the United States.

“I am super happy with the win, Olga is a fighter and I knew it would be a fight. She played like a top-10 player; pretty soon she will be in the top 10,” said Sabalenka.

“When I’m on court I’m a completely different person. I’m very aggressive. Very focused. Here it’s not about jokes. It’s about dreams. I give my all on court.

“Off court it’s very important to surround yourself with the right people and have fun with your crew. I’m really grateful for each of them. We are like family.”

She started in ruthless fashion, racing to a 5-0 lead but Danilovic avoided the bagel by winning the sixth game on serve, going on to pull a break back.

But the resurgence was shortlived, as Sabalenka wrapped up the opening set with another break of serve.

Danilovic put up a decent fight in the second set but there was no comeback on the cards as Sabalenka broke for 5-3.

The three-time Grand Slam champion wrapped it up with an unreturnable serve on a half-empty Court Philippe Chatrier – a common occurrence on early matches at the French Open.

Earlier, Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen became the first woman to qualify for the last 16 after a 6-3, 6-4 win over Canadian teenager Victoria Mboko.

The Chinese eighth seed has won nine successive matches at Roland Garros following her run to Olympic gold last summer.

She is through to the fourth round in Paris for the second time and will next play either Russian 19th seed Liudmila Samsonova or Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska.

“I feel she played really well and I think we pushed each other to play our best tennis,” Zheng said in her on-court interview. “We had some really good points, it was not an easy match.”

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Off the court, tournament director Amelie Mauresmo has said it was impossible to “tick every box” after repeated criticism of the French Open schedule and the absence of any women’s matches in the primetime night session.

The debate over the lack of women’s ties played in the late slot on Court Philippe Chatrier has rumbled on since the session was first added to the French Open schedule in 2021.

The first six night sessions of this year’s tournament have all involved men’s matches. In fact, no women have played in the evening since Aryna Sabalenka beat Sloane Stephens in the fourth round two years ago.

Second seed Coco Gauff said she believed women’s matches were “worthy” of the occasion, after three-time Grand Slam finalist Ons Jabeur again took officials to task over the scheduling.

Mauresmo, a former world No. 1, said her stance on the matter had not changed – with the night session still consisting of just one match.

“The message has never been that the girls are not worthy to play at night,” she said.

“I’m talking, and we are talking about potential match lengths. Since men’s tennis is played at the best-of-five sets, three sets will be played at a minimum.”

The Australian and US Opens both put on two matches in their night sessions, but start earlier and still run the risk of finishing in the early hours of the morning.

“If we have two matches in the night session, it doesn’t work in terms of how late the players are going to finish. That’s my opinion,” Mauresmo added. AFP, REUTERS

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