Sabalenka and Swiatek set up final before French Open final

One of the biggest takeaways from when the French Open draws were made was that Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek were put in the same half of the women's singles event.

- Shahid Judge

MUMBAI: Here we had the reigning world No. 1 Sabalenka, a three-time Grand Slam champion on a collision course with the three-time defending champion and fifth seed Swiatek, should they get to the semi-final.

On Tuesday, both came up with straight-set wins in their respective quarter-finals to set up a mouth-watering semi-final. In many ways, the final before the final.

Playing one after the other on Court Philippe Chatrier, Sabalenka beat eighth seed Qinwen Zheng 7-6(3), 6-3 before Swiatek came up with a 6-1, 7-5 win over 13th seed Elina Svitolina. By no means, though, were the wins on Tuesday straightforward.

Sabalenka was coming up against the Olympic champion, who had beaten the Belarusian a week before the French Open, at the Rome Masters. Zheng made the first big move in the match by earning a break in the third game of the opening set. But Sabalenka wouldn't go away, despite Zheng looking the sharper of the two players early on.

The top seed eventually got a break back before clinching the set in the tiebreaker.