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• New mother Elina Svitolina hails ‘special’ French Open quarter-final spot

  New mother Elina Svitolina continued her incredible grand slam return by defeating Daria Kasatkina to reach the quarter-finals of the French Open.

  The Ukrainian gave birth to daughter Skai in October and played her first tournament in more than a year at the beginning of April.

  She arrived in Paris on the back of a WTA title in Strasbourg and, watched by husband Gael Monfils, extended her winning run to eight matches with a 6-4 7-6 (5) success against ninth seed Kasatkina.

  “Definitely I wouldn’t dream about this when I was giving birth in October last year,” said Svitolina.

  “It’s unbelievable for me to be able to compete here and to get to the quarter-final is special. Hopefully I can push further. I’m really motivated to give my everything for the next matches.”

  The former world number three, who can match her best ever grand slam run by making the semi-finals, overcame nerves at the end, twice failing to serve it out, before clinching victory in a tie-break.

  Svitolina spent four years in the top 10 and is enjoying being able to play without so much expectation, saying: “I think this is one of the things that I noticed that right now I don’t have that pressure that I used to have before.

  “Of course, me personally I put pressure for myself because I want to win a slam. This is the ultimate goal for me.

  “But definitely not the pressure from outside. No one expects that I’m going to come into Roland Garros and make quarter-final at the beginning of the tournament.

  “That’s why I feel like this really helps me. I feel almost like I’m 17 again coming on the tour fresh. I’m not defending any points. Not here, not next week. I feel more free.”

  Kasatkina has been the most outspoken Russian player against the invasion of Ukraine and earned praise from Svitolina ahead of the contest.

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  She knew Svitolina would stick to the Ukrainians’ policy of not shaking hands with Belarusian and Russian opponents, though, and gave a quick thumbs-up before heading straight to her chair.

  One Russian is through to the last eight, with Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova arguably even more of a surprise than Svitolina.

  The 31-year-old achieved the best result of her career here two years ago by reaching the final but underwent knee surgery last year and is ranked down at 333.

  She recently lost 6-0 6-0 to Iga Swiatek in Rome but took out her third seed of the week with a 3-6 7-6 (3) 6-3 victory over Elise Mertens.

  “I had a fear and doubts that maybe I will never win a match again,” said Pavlyuchenkova. “Maybe I will never get my good form back or I will never be fit again. What if I start playing again and the pain comes back and my knee is bad again?

  “But I guess this motivation and this desire of coming back and competing again and being on these big stages again and playing three-hour matches like today, there was a lot more weight on that. So that kind of pushed me.

  “I believed, I worked so hard and, even with all the failures that I had this year – and there were sometimes ridiculous matches that I lost – still kept on believing, working hard, and just persistence and patience.”

  Pavlyuchenkova will next meet Czech Karolina Muchova, who reached her first French Open quarter-final with a 6-4 6-3 win over Elina Avanesyan.

• Villarreal 2-2 Atletico Madrid: Late Pascual leveller denies Simeone's 10 men second place

  Atletico Madrid missed the chance to leapfrog Real Madrid and finish second in LaLiga on the final day of the season, as Jorge Pascual scored Villarreal's last-gasp equaliser in a 2-2 draw.

  Antoine Griezmann laid on two goals for Angel Correa after Nicolas Jackson put Villarreal ahead early on, but Axel Witsel's red card saw Diego Simeone's side come under mounting pressure, which told when Pascual converted two minutes into stoppage time.

  That meant Atleti finished the season one point adrift of their city rivals in third, despite Los Blancos labouring to a 1-1 draw with Athletic Bilbao on Sunday.

  Pablo Barrios' error was punished as Villarreal went ahead after nine minutes, the teenager's miscued header teeing up Jackson for a powerful finish across goal. 

  Atleti levelled when Correa turned Griezmann's clever free-kick home nine minutes later, and the France international teed up Correa again with the latter rounding Filip Jorgensen to put the visitors 2-1 up after the break.

  With Atleti seemingly heading for second place, Witsel was dismissed for fouling Giovani Lo Celso as the last man, and Villarreal made their numerical advantage count in the season's dying moments, Pascual converting a rebound to condemn Simeone's side to third.

• Napoli 2-0 Sampdoria: Osimhen reaches half-century as Spalletti signs off with victory

  Victor Osimhen reached another milestone as Napoli concluded their Scudetto-winning campaign with a 2-0 victory over Serie A's bottom side Sampdoria.

  Osimhen sealed the Capocannoniere with his second-half penalty taking his tally for the Serie A campaign to 26 goals, while it was also his 50th overall in the competition.

  Substitute Giovanni Simeone's wonderful individual effort secured victory as the Partonopei lifted the Serie A trophy at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, where Luciano Spalletti was overseeing his final match in charge before taking a year-long sabbatical.

  The Partenopei finished their memorable season on 90 points, their second-highest tally in Serie A – having collected one more under Maurizio Sarri five years ago.

  Napoli created the first opportunity inside three minutes when Khvicha Kvaratskhelia fed Piotr Zielinski, who fired over from a tight angle.

  At the other end, two former Partenopei players almost combined to thwart their old club, but Fabio Quagliarella squandered a great opportunity by heading Manolo Gabbiadini's inviting cross wide from inside the six yard box.

  Koray Gunter produced a wonderful last-ditch intervention to deny Eljif Elmas a clear sight on goal after Osimhen had neatly cushioned a lofted ball into his team-mate's path.

  Sampdoria went close after the break when substitute Lorenzo Malagrida shot straight at Alex Meret, but the hosts broke through in the 64th minute.

  After Nicola Murru brought him down in the penalty area, Osimhen picked himself up and confidently swept the spot-kick into the bottom-right corner.

  Martin Turk denied Frank Anguissa and Gianluca Gaetano with smart reflex saves, but was helpless when Simeone arrowed a stunning 25-yard effort into the top corner to seal the points five minutes from time.