Paris: World number one Iga Swiatek racked up her 31st straight win to reach the French Open last 16 on Saturday but only after being tested by Danka Kovinic of Montenegro.
Swiatek, the 2020 champion in Paris, dropped serve three times against her 95th-ranked opponent before sealing a 6-3, 7-5 victory.
Kovinic recovered from 1-4 down in the second set to lead 5-4 but Swiatek steadied the ship with a hold and a break before serving out for victory.
Swiatek will face either Chinese teenager Zheng Qinwen or France’s Alize Cornet for a place in the quarter-finals. Her winning streak is the best on Tour since Serena Williams’s run of 34 successive wins in 2013.
Earlier, Leolia Jeanjean’s run at the French Open ended in the third round when the 227th-ranked wild card was defeated 6-1, 6-4 by Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania.
Jeanjean, once one of France’s greatest hopes before her career was derailed by a succession of knee injuries, was the first wild card in 34 years to make the last 32 when she knocked out former world number one Karolina Pliskova.
On Saturday, the former US college star, who was making her main Tour debut at the age of 26, slipped 0-5 down in the first set to her 31-year-old opponent.
But she battled hard in the second, coming back from 1-5 down and saving three match points before Begu claimed victory.
“In the end, I was shaking a little bit,” admitted 63rd-ranked Begu who is in the fourth round for the first time since 2016.
Begu was fortunate not to have been defaulted in the second round when she petulantly bounced her racquet into the crowd where it hit a child.
She goes on to face either 2021 semi-finalist Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia or US 11th seed Jessica Pegula for a place in the quarter-finals.
