World No.1 Iga Swiatek celebrated her 23rd birthday in style with an emphatic 6-4, 6-2 victory over Marie Bouzkova to move into the last 16 at the French Open on Friday.

Swiatek survived a major scare in the previous round when she saved a match point against Naomi Osaka before sealing a hard-fought victory, but against Bouzkova she picked apart the Czech player’s serve with some precision hitting.

The defending champion showed no signs of a hangover from the three-setter with Osaka and consolidated an early break to go 3-1 up in the opening set but Bouzkova fought back from 5-2 down to give the Pole a workout.

However, Swiatek switched gears and carefully constructed her points, using the angles well to make Bouzkova run from one corner of Court Philippe-Chatrier to the other, firing 18 winners in total in the opening set.

The top seed continued to dominate in the second set as she effortlessly turned defence into offence on Bouzkova’s serve, breaking twice to race into a 4-0 lead before the Czech managed to get on the board. Bouzkova saved a match point on her serve but she only delayed the inevitable as Swiatek sealed progress with a searing winner down the line.

Eighth seed Ons Jabeur continued her latest bid to become the first Arab and African woman to claim a grand slam title with a tough 6-4, 7-6(5) victory over Canadian Leylah Fernandez that put her into the fourth round.

Tunisian Jabeur has come within touching distance of grand slam glory in the past, reaching the last two Wimbledon finals and the 2022 US Open title clash but the 29-year-old has not been able to cross the finish line.

American third seed Coco Gauff showed some second-set resilience in 6-2, 6-4 victory over Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska to advance to the fourth round and move a step closer to ending a three-year claycourt drought.

The US Open winner, who reached the final in Paris in 2022 and last won a title on the surface in 2021, was in solid form in the first set against surprise Australian Open semi-finalist Yastremska before struggling briefly in the second. She will next face Italy’s world No. 51 Elisabetta Cocciaretto.

Former finalist Marketa Vondrousova overcame France’s Chloe Paquet to win 6-1, 6-3. Vondrousova, who became the first unseeded player to win Wimbledon last year, was a beaten finalist at Roland Garros in 2019, and the Czech player kept alive her dream of a return to the final with her straight sets win.

‘Incredible’ Arnaldi

Italy’s Matteo Arnaldi produced a sensational performance to take out sixth seed Andrey Rublev and reach the last 16.

The 23-year-old saved a set point in the opening set and went on to dominate his emotionally-charged opponent for a 7-6(8), 6-2, 6-4 victory to equal his best Grand Slam run.

Russian Rublev ranted and raged at himself as the match began to slip away, thumping his racquet into his legs as another chance at a deep grand slam run came to a bitter end on the Parisian dust.

Arnaldi, who also reached the fourth round of last year’s US Open, was rock-solid throughout and barely put a foot wrong as he posted one the biggest wins of his career.

“The first set was very important for me, because you know I’m not the favourite so going after a set like this down one set to love it’s never easy,” Arnaldi said on court. “It’s incredible, I mean I think I played the best tennis for sure in my life I would say.”

Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas cruised past China’s Zhang Zhizhen 6-3, 6-3, 6-1, setting up a meeting with Arnaldi.

Ruthless world No. 2

World No. 2 Jannik Sinner eased into the fourth round with a ruthless 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 victory against Russian Pavel Kotov.

The Australian Open champion only faced one break point in a one-sided encounter.

Kotov, who was hoping to beat a second grand slam champion in a row after eliminating Stan Wawrinka in the previous round, got off to a fiery start but Sinner was still a level above in the first set.

The Italian got another early break in the second to move two sets up and the same pattern was repeated in the third as Sinner wrapped up victory with an ace on match point.

Balaji wins

N Sriram Balaji made a strong case for his inclusion in the Indian men’s doubles team for the Paris Olympics along with Rohan Bopanna by logging his maiden win at the French Open but Yuki Bhambri, the other contender for the berth, made a first-round exit.

Yuki and Albano Olivetti lost 3-6, 6-7(5) to Australia’s John Peers and Russia’s Roman Safiullin in the opening round.

Balaji combined well with Mexicao’s Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela Martinez for a 6-3, 6-4 win over American Reese Stalder and Dutch Sem Verbeek.