By Shrivathsa Sridhar
PARIS, May 31 (Reuters) – Seventh seed Elina Svitolina began slowly but finished strongly to beat Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic 4-6 6-4 6-0 and reach the quarter-finals of the French Open on Sunday, booking an all-Ukrainian showdown with Marta Kostyuk.
• Svitolina, who is looking for her maiden Grand Slam title at the age of 31, arrived at Roland Garros in superb form after winning the Rome title by beating Coco Gauff in the final.
• She was taken to three sets in her Paris opener, before easy wins in the previous two rounds to build momentum ahead of the clash with 11th seed Bencic on Court Philippe Chatrier.
• Bencic, also seeking her first major title following her gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics five years ago, fended off a late charge from Svitolina to take the opening set.
• Svitolina quickly hit her stride to level up the contest at one-set apiece, before turning up the heat in the third set as Bencic’s challenge faded.
• She closed out the win by blanking her opponent to secure a meeting with Kostyuk, who earlier defeated four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Paris; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
