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Jasmine Paolini, last year's French Open runner-up, stunned by Elina Svitolina in pre-quarters
Elina Svitolina will now aim to make the semifinal for the first time at Roland Garros against either No. 5 seed Iga Swiatek or No. 12 seed Elena Rybakina.
Number fourth seed Jasmine Paolini, on Sunday, was knocked out of the 2025 French Open as Ukraine's Elina Svitolina scripted a 4-6, 7-6, 6-1 win against the last year's runner-up on the Court Phillipe Chatrier to progress to the quarterfinal.
Paolini and Svitolina swapped breaks twice, before the Italian held to love in the ninth game and pounced to claim the opening set with a scorching forehand winner in the next game. Paolini then raced to a 3-1 lead in the second set, before Svitolina forced a comeback. She recovered two breaks and saved two match points to make it 5-5 before forcing a tiebreak, where she used her momentum to level the match.
Svitolina pulled away by winning four games in a row before her opponent got on the board and she promptly completed the victory with a searing backhand winner to reach the last eight.
For Svitolina, it was a remarkable turnaround against the Rome champion, as she saved three match points to reach the French Open quarterfinal for the fifth time in her career. This was also the second time she came back from a set down against the Italian, having pulled off a similar feat in their only previous meeting, winning 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 in this year's Australian Open third round.
The Ukrainian has been in stellar form on clay this year, losing just two of her 20 matches thus far, which includes her 18th career title in Rouen in April.
"I still cannot believe that this match finished my way," said Svitolina. "It was a really difficult match today, Jasmine was playing really well. It was really tough for me but I'm very happy I was able to stay composed and fight until the very last point."
Svitolina will now aim to make the semifinal for the first time at Roland Garros against either four-time women's title-holder Iga Swiatek or No. 12 seed Elena Rybakina.
Paolini, who had become the first Italian woman to reach a Grand Slam final since 2015, and the first to do so in Paris since 2012 after beating Mirra Andreeva in the semis last year, was on a nine-match winning streak, which included the title in Rome. It was her second WTA 1000 trophy, and she became the second Italian woman in history to do so.
