MADRID, May 3 (Xinhua) -- Women's number one Ashleigh Barty won the battle between the past two French Open champions when she beat Poland's Iga Swiatek 7-5, 6-4 in the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open on Monday.
Barty won in Paris in 2019 and Swiatek in 2020 and both players went into the clash with long unbeaten runs on clay, with Barty not losing her last 19 matches on the surface, while Swiatek hadn't lost in 18.
Swiatek started the better of the two and raced into a 3-0 lead, but she failed to beat the Australian's serve and although Barty's first serve wasn't at her best, she still won almost 80 percent of her service points.
The No.1 seed will now meet Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals after the No.9 seed reached the quarterfinals in Madrid for the sixth time in her career with the three-time winner taking a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 win over Veronika Kudermetova, while No.8 seed Belinda Bencic moved into the last eight after injury forced her rival, Ons Jabeur to retire trailing 7-6(2), 4-3.
On the first day of the men's competition, Russia's Aslan Karatsev opened his debut Mutua Madrid Open campaign on Monday by hitting 24 winners on his way to a 7-5, 6-4 victory against Ugo Humbert, which set up a second-round tie against No.7 seed Diego Schwartzman.
British number one Daniel Evans beat Jeremy Chardy in a marathon 7-6(6), 6-7(7), 6-2 match, which lasted two hours and 46 minutes.
Lloyd Harris continued his excellent form against Top-20 ranked opponents with a tense, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(5) win over Bulgaria's No.13 seed Grigor Dimitrov.
Harris wasted three match points while 5-2 up in the third set, but then fought back from 2-3 down in the decisive tie-break.
Meanwhile, big-serving John Isner hit 28 aces on his way to a 6-4, 7-6(6) win over Serbia's Miomir Kecmanovic. Enditem
