World No 1 Iga Swiatek drops just four games against Madison Keys in a straight-sets victory; The Pole is looking for her third Italian Open title in four years; you can watch the conclusion to the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome exclusively live on Sky Sports Tennis
Tuesday 14 May 2024 16:48, UK
Two-time Italian Open champion Iga Swiatek eased into the semi-finals with a 6-1 6-3 win over Madison Keys on Tuesday, and will play American third seed Coco Gauff.
The Pole, who has already fashioned a record of 36-4 for the year, faced Keys in a repeat of her recent semi-final clash with America's Keys in Madrid, which ended with the same scoreline.
Gauff played later on against China's seventh seeded Qinwen Zheng, securing a straight-sets 7-6 6-1 victory to book her semi-final place.
Swiatek broke the serve of Keys in the opening game, and while Keys won her next service game to love to make it 2-1, the Polish top-seed won the next four games to take the first set in 26 minutes.
Swiatek needed just one break in the second set, which gave her a 3-1 lead, and when the Pole saved four break points in the next game to hold serve, Keys' chance of a comeback ended.
"Honestly I felt really good today, even if I that knew one or two points could change everything," Swiatek said.
"I'm glad that I served well because I think when we were kind of even in the games sometimes, I could win two points just by serving.
"It's something that doesn't happen often in my game, so today was a good day in terms of that."
Swiatek is aiming to win her fourth title this year having already won the Qatar Open, Indian Wells and the Madrid Open.
On the men's side of the draw, a shock saw defending champion Daniil Medvedev beaten by the USA's Tommy Paul 6-1 6-4 - the American booking a quarter-final spot.
Taylor Fritz also made it through to the men's quarter-finals for the first time after the American recovered from losing an epic second-set tie-break - during which he let slip a match point - to see off Grigor Dimitrov 6-2 6-7 (11-13) 6-1.
Fritz saved all 11 break points he faced to set up a meeting with third-seeded Alexander Zverev after the German beat Nuno Borges 6-2 7-5.
Chilean-Canadian Alejandro Tabilo backed up his stunning third-round win against top-ranked Novak Djokovic by edging Karen Khachanov 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (12-10) to reach the first Masters quarter-final of his career.
Elsewhere, Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas romped past Australian Alex de Minaur 6-1 6-2, Poland's Hubert Hurkacz came from a set down to beat Argentine Sebastian Baez 5-7 7-6 6-4, Chile's Nicolas Jarry beat French qualifier Alexandre Muller 7-5 6-3, and China's Zhang Zhizhen beat Brazilian qualifier Thiago Monteiro 7-6 6-3.
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