Perfect 10 as champion Swiatek moves into last 16

Defending champion Iga Swiatek overcame an early break to defeat Estonia’s Anett Kontaveit and reach the last 16 at Roland Garros on Saturday.

The eighth-seeded Pole won 7-64, 6-0 to stretch her record of straight-sets victories here to 10 matches.

Swiatek reeled off 11 of the last 13 games on Saturday and will face Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk for a place in the quarter-finals.

“She had a fast start and I was late getting going,” said Swiatek, who had lost both her previous matches to Kontaveit.

Sofia Kenin advanced to the fourth round for the third consecutive year by winning a seesaw match against Jessica Pegula 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Kenin is the highest-seeded player left in the women’s draw at No. 4, and she has shaken a slump with her return to Roland Garros, where she was the runner-up to Iga Swiatek in October.

American Sloane Stephens, who is ranked 59th and is out of the top 50 for the first time since 2017, advanced by beating 18th-seeded Karolina Muchova 6-3, 7-5.

Stephens, the runner-up in 2018, will next face Barbora Krejcikova, who upset No. 5 Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-2.

Novak Djokovic cruised into the fourth round for the 12th consecutive year with a 6-1, 6-4, 6-1 victory over Lithuania’s 93rd-ranked Ricardas Berankis.

The World No. 1 will take on Italian 19-year-old and Grand Slam debutant Lorenzo Musetti for a place in the quarterfinals.

“He’s young and plays with lots of spin and power. He has nothing to lose so I need to be ready for this challenge,” Djokovic said of a first meeting with Musetti.

Djokovic is bidding to be the first man in more than half a century to win all four majors on multiple occasions.