Reigning Wimbledon and Indian Wells Open champion Elena Rybakina extended her winning streak to 11 matches with Monday's 6-4 6-3 victory over Elise Mertens in the Miami Open fourth round.
Rybakina, 23, has been one of the most in-form talents in the sport this year, with her only two losses since the start of the Australian Open coming in three-setters against Aryna Sabalenka and Beatriz Haddad Maia.
The Kazakhstan representative produced 10 aces against Mertens on her way into the quarter-finals, becoming the first player this WTA season to finish with at least 10 aces in three consecutive matches.
She will look to keep her sparkling form alive when she meets Martina Trevisan for a spot in the semi-finals, after the Italian got the better of Latvia's Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 6-3.
Sabalenka showed why she is the top remaining seed after Iga Swiatek's withdrawal, beating 16th seed Barbora Krejcikova 6-3 6-2. Krejcikova was one of two players this season to beat Sabalenka – with Rybakina the other – and by avenging that defeat the Belarusian improved her record in 2023 to 20-2.
America's top hope Jessica Pegula needed only 79 minutes to eliminate Magda Linette 6-1 7-5, winning the first five games of the match to set the tone early, and she will now meet Russia's Anastasia Potapova in the quarters.
Potapova finished with just one ace compared to Qinwen Zheng's nine, but she showed enough guile to overcome the Chinese international's power advantage.
Romania's Sorana Cirstea kept her great run going with a 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 triumph over Marketa Vondrousova, making it eight wins from her past nine matches, and Bianca Andreescu was forced to retire through injury while down a set 7-6 (7-0) 0-2 against Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Sabalenka marches on with comfortable win over Navarro
Aryna Sabalenka crushed Emma Navarro in straight sets to advance to the French Open quarter-finals, requiring just 71 minutes to clinch a 6-2 6-3 victory.
World number two Sabalenka had reached the last 16 without dropping a single set, only losing more than two games in one of six sets of tennis at this year's tournament.
It was more of the same on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Monday, the two-time grand slam winner's power and poise giving world number 22 Navarro few chances to make it a contest.
Sabalenka set the tone by breaking in the very first service game and was a set up within 32 minutes, winning 13 of 14 points behind her first serve in the opener.
Another quick break meant the second set followed a similar pattern, and though Navarro came through a couple of tough service games, she only delayed the inevitable as Sabalenka teed up a last-eight clash with either Varvara Gracheva or Mirra Andreeva.
Data Debrief: No denying Sabalenka
Sabalenka was beaten in her only previous meeting with Navarro at Indian Wells earlier this year, but she gave the American little hope of a repeat on Monday.
The victory made her just the seventh woman to make seven consecutive grand slam quarter-finals this century, after Jennifer Capriati, Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams and Serena Williams.
The last major where Sabalenka was not involved in the last eight was the 2022 edition of Wimbledon, when Russian and Belarusian players were banned due to the war in Ukraine.
Rybakina eases past Svitolina to reach French Open quarter-finals
Elena Rybakina cruised past Elina Svitolina in just 69 minutes to reach the French Open quarter-finals on Monday.
Rybakina was hardly troubled as she reached the fifth grand slam quarter-final of her career with a 6-4 6-3 success, maintaining her record of not dropping a set at Roland Garros this year.
The world number four relied on her strong serve – winning 77 per cent of points behind her first serve – and quick movement to the net as she broke in the opening game of both sets.
Svitolina managed to break back on both occasions, only for Rybakina to find an extra gear and pull away in relative comfort, teeing up a last-eight clash with either Jasmine Paolini or Elina Avanesyan.
Data Debrief: Rybakina enjoying best year yet
Rybakina is into her ninth WTA-level quarter-final of 2024, which is already a career high for a single year and is also more than any other player on the tour this term (Iga Swiatek is second with eight).
The Kazakhstani is also just the second woman from an Asian nation to reach multiple grand slam quarter-finals on both clay and grass in the Open Era, after Kazuko Sawamatsu.
Sinner recovers to beat Moutet with classy performance
Jannik Sinner recovered from one set down to reach the French Open quarter-finals on Sunday, putting away home favourite Corentin Moutet with a classy display.
A huge upset looked possible when Moutet took the first set and broke early in the second, but Sinner fought back to post a deeply impressive 2-6 6-3 6-2 6-1 victory.
Sinner seemed to be caught off-guard by Moutet in the opener, the French showman sinking a series of delicious drop shots with the world number two on his heels.
Moutet carried that momentum into the second set, breaking straight away with his first four winners all being drop shots, yet Sinner soon learned, getting to the net well as he immediately broke back.
That was a theme of the contest from then on, with Sinner making few mistakes with his approach play and dispatching a series of volleys at the net as he took the second set.
Early in the third, it was the Italian pulling out the party tricks as he broke twice more en route to going a set up, much to the annoyance of a raucous crowd on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Moutet threw his racket down after seeing his serve broken again in the first game of the fourth set, and then attempted – in vain – to snap his racket when Sinner converted at the end of a long rally to make it a double break, his outing ending in frustration.
Data Debrief: All-rounder Sinner in great company
Sinner has become just the third male player since the year 2000 to reach multiple grand slam quarter-finals on every surface before turning 23, after Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
He will face Grigor Dimitrov in the quarter-finals after the 10th seed overcame world number eight Hubert Hurkacz in straight sets on Sunday.
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