PARIS — Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka beat Naomi Osaka 7-5, 6-3 on Monday to reach the French Open quarterfinals and move one step closer to finally winning the clay-court Grand Slam after getting beaten by Coco Gauff in last year’s final.
It was the first women’s night match at Roland Garros in three years and Osaka entered the court wearing a golden bomber jacket over her gold sequin playing dress, trailing a tiered train with puffs of tulle.
Sabakenka wore more standard tennis attire: A slightly sheer black flared tennis dress with a red underlayer; plus diamond necklaces.
In the matchup of four-time Grand Slam champions, Sabalenka improved to 3-1 in her career against Osaka, who was playing in the fourth round at Roland Garros for the first time.
Sabalenka overpowered Osaka from the baseline, and produced a huge forehand return winner on her first match point that Osaka barely got her racket on.
Tournament organizers had been criticized for not scheduling more women’s matches at night, with Roland Garros officials responding that women’s best-of-three set matches don’t occupy enough time for TV broadcasters. The men play best-of-five set matches.
Sabalenka won in 1 hour, 27 minutes.
“The atmosphere and the attention that this match brought (is) going to show them that probably for the future they should consider putting at least sometimes women matches at night,” Sabalenka said.
Sabalenka’s quarterfinal opponent will be Diana Shnaider, who beat Madison Keys — the last American woman remaining in contention — 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.
French hopes were dashed following Diane Parry’s 6-3, 6-2 loss to 114th-ranked Polish player Maja Chwalinska.
Chwalinska had never been beyond the second round of any major, and her run is even more impressive since she came through three qualifying rounds.
Chwalinska’s quarterfinal opponent will be Anna Kalinskaya, who surprised even herself by reaching the last eight after defeating Anastasia Potapova 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (10-7).
“Thinking two weeks ago that I will be here, I wouldn’t believe it,” Kalinskaya said. “I would probably laugh with my team.”
Many top women’s players were already eliminated, such as Gauff, four-time winner Iga Swiatek and No. 2-ranked Elena Rybakina.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
