Svitolina recovers from a set down to bagel Bencic in the third, setting up an all-Ukrainian quarter-final with Kostyuk
Elina Svitolina won against Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 on Sunday and will play Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, the No 15 seed, in the next round
Elina Svitolina, Roland-Garros 2026 | © Gepa / PsNewz
Elina Svitolina, the seventh seed and reigning Italian Open champion, came back from a set down to beat 11th seed Belinda Bencic 4-6, 6-4, 6-0 on Court Philippe-Chatrier on Sunday evening, reaching the quarter-finals of Roland-Garros for the sixth time in her career, the 15th Grand Slam quarter-final of her career overall, and an all-Ukrainian last-eight meeting with compatriot Marta Kostyuk that guarantees a Ukrainian semi-final berth at the tournament.
The contest moved through three distinct phases. Bencic, the Swiss world No. 11 who had not dropped a set across her first three rounds, took the opening set 6-4 in the kind of clean ball-striking she had used to navigate Peyton Stearns, Caitlin McNally and Sinja Kraus in the opening week.
“I missed my opportunity a couple of times to break her early, and then she picked up a good game”, Svitolina said. “I had to really dig deep to find again the way I wanted to play.”
Svitolina, who had arrived in Paris on a nine-match winning streak after lifting her third Italian Open title in Rome two weeks earlier, was the slower starter. She found her serve and her depth across the back end of the second set, broke for 3-2 (then 4-2), once again at 5-4, and served it out to level the contest.
Seventh Grand Slam quarteer since being a mother
The third set never spent a moment in doubt. Svitolina broke three times, won six straight games to close it out 6-0, and turned a contest that had run on serve for an hour into a bagel-finish set in the kind of close-down only the players at the very top of the women’s tour can produce.
The win was Svitolina’s fifth consecutive over Bencic, and her 10th match in a row overall, a run that has carried her through the Italian Open title, where she became the oldest player in WTA history to defeat three top-five opponents at the same WTA 1000 event, including a semi-final win over Iga Świątek. It was also their first clay-court meeting since 2014, when Bencic, then a qualifier, had beaten Svitolina in three sets.
For Svitolina, this is her seventh Grand Slam quarter-final since returning from maternity leave at Roland-Garros in 2023.Hher daughter Skai was born in October 2022, and the Ukrainian made her comeback at this tournament, reaching the quarter-finals as a wild card.
The numbers around her late-30s consistency are extraordinary. She has been in the second week of a Grand Slam 22 times in her career, equal with Madison Keys and Iga Świątek among her peer cohort. She has not, however, ever reached a Grand Slam semi-final at Roland-Garros. She lost all five of her previous quarter-finals here, the last four of them in straight sets.
