The 2025 Roland Garros entered its second week with a stunning upset that sent shockwaves through the clay-court Grand Slam, as four-time champion Iga Swiatek was eliminated from the tournament in a lopsided defeat to Marta Kostyuk. For the Polish star, the loss marked a disappointing end to her tournament on her 25th birthday, capping a difficult stretch of form that has seen her long-held dominance on clay erode over the past 12 months.
Swiatek, who entered the tournament as the world No. 3, took an early advantage in the opening set, breaking Kostyuk to move ahead 4-3. But from that point onward, her serve and overall rhythm completely collapsed. She never held another game, as the Ukrainian clay-court specialist clawed back to take the first set 7-5, then blazed through the second set 6-1 to secure a straight-sets victory. It is the furthest Kostyuk has ever advanced at Roland Garros, extending a career-best run through the clay-court season that already includes a WTA 250 title in Rouen and her first ever WTA 1000 crown at the Madrid Open.
In her post-match comments, Swiatek openly acknowledged the mental pressure that derailed her performance, admitting that stress management has been a persistent struggle for her over the past year. “I feel, like, for sure I lost today because Marta used the opportunity, and I was super tense,” the three-time Roland Garros winner said. “It is harder a bit to handle stress for me in the last year. So I feel like today I felt off, you know, and I did mistakes that I didn’t want to do, and I wanted to play safe, but the ball flew everywhere. Suddenly these feelings came back, and I tried to work on it with my dialogue inside, but it was tough today. Yeah, so it all kind of went drastically down, and I played worse and worse.”
The upset continues a trend of top seeds exiting the tournament early in the second week. Swiatek’s exit follows the end of her historic streak of consistent success at Roland Garros: since claiming her first French Open title in just her second appearance at the event back in 2020, she had never gone more than two seasons without lifting the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen. After Aryna Sabalenka ended her bid for a fourth consecutive title in the 2024 semi-finals, Swiatek has struggled to recapture her unbeatable form on clay, collecting just three tour-level titles in the two seasons since her last Paris championship.
Kostyuk will now face compatriot Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals, after Svitolina staged a comeback to beat 11th seed Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 4-6, 6-4, 6-0. Svitolina, the seventh seed, has reached the French Open quarter-finals five times before but has never advanced past that stage. Having claimed her first WTA 1000 title in eight years at the Italian Open last month, the upcoming match will pit the two champions of the biggest Roland Garros warm-up events against one another, guaranteeing a Ukrainian representative in the semi-finals. “It’s exciting. Definitely she’s been playing really well,” Svitolina said of Kostyuk, who has now won 15 consecutive matches on red clay. “I feel like it’s going to be an exciting battle for Ukraine, as well, you know, that there will be one Ukrainian in the semis. Yeah, I think it’s really cool.”
Elsewhere in the women’s draw, 36-year-old Romanian Sorana Cirstea is enjoying a dream final season on tour, rallying to continue her remarkable renaissance with a 6-3, 7-6(4) win over China’s Wang Xiyu, ranked world No. 148. The result puts Cirstea into her first French Open quarter-final in 17 years, where she will face either Russian eighth seed Mirra Andreeva or Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann, ranked 170th in the world. Entering this final season, Cirstea said she wanted to exit the sport competing at a high level, but even she never expected this level of success. Currently sitting at a career-high WTA ranking of 18th, she said, “I came into my last year, wanted to go out the front door of the sport, wanting to really do well, but I didn’t really think it was going to go that well. In the same time it’s very beautiful. I’m very grateful for everything that’s happening.”
In the men’s draw, 19-year-old Spanish rising star Rafael Jodar pulled off a dramatic comeback in his debut Grand Slam campaign, fighting back from two sets down to defeat compatriot Pablo Carreno Busta 4-6, 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 to book his spot in the quarter-finals. The five-set battle was interrupted by brief rain delays after the first week’s record heatwave gave way to wet conditions, extending an already lengthy match for the teen qualifier who has become accustomed to marathon clashes during his first run at Roland Garros.
Looking ahead to the day’s remaining matches, the two highest-profile remaining contenders in the bottom half of the men’s draw—both former Grand Slam finalists—will step onto court looking to secure their own quarter-final spots and keep their dreams of a first major title alive. Eighth seed Casper Ruud will face Brazilian young gun Joao Fonseca, while second seed Alexander Zverev will take on Dutch lucky loser Jesper de Jong.