Elina Svitolina survived a late-match blip against Alize Cornet in a rain interrupted fourth round tie at the Philippe-Chatrier on Sunday.
The No. 21 ranked Ukrainian was well on course for the last eight after breaking the French No. 1 three times and won 67% of points on her own serve in a 35-minute first set, but managed to stave off the worst in the second set as she closed out a 6-2 7-6(11-9) win.
“I was expecting this from here, because she’s obviously a great fighter,” Svitolina said. “I have seen a lot of matches when she won after being a long way down.”
Cornet, seeded 29th, was on the brink of a famous comeback when she rallied from 4-2 down in the second set. After saving five match points in the tiebreak, Cornet happened to send a weak backhand long to hand out victory.
“I was expecting this, but actually I was trying to stay calm and just play my game. Of course, it was tough with the wind against, the crowd and against the player. She was fighting. I think she gave her best, and, yeah, I’m really happy that I could win and when that ball went long on the last point”.
Svitolina, 20, is the youngest player through to Roland Garros quarter-finals and will face former champion Ana Ivanovic, who saw off Ekaterina Makarova 7-5 3-6 6-1 in the other fourth round match of Sunday.
“To be honest, coming into the tournament I didn’t really expect that at all,” Ivanovic said. “But I really worked hard for each match. I worked hard even before the tournament to reach the quarter-final again here. It feels amazing.”
Sunday’s fourth round clash between Maria Sharapova and Lucie Safarova and Garbine Muguruza vs Flávio Pannetta has been called off until Minday due to rain.
