Holder Gauff beaten by Potapova; Sabalenka solid at French Open

Gauff’s exit leaves four-time champion Swiatek and world number one Sabalenka as top contenders for the women’s title.

Defending champion Coco Gauff has been dramatically dethroned at the French Open by Anastasia Potapova while world number one Aryna Sabalenka has cut through the chaos to dismiss Daria Kasatkina and reach the Roland Garros fourth round.

After a brutal two days for fancied players at the clay-court Grand Slam, during which Jannik Sinner and Novak Djokovic crashed out, Gauff was unable to find her best level on Saturday and lost 4-6, 7-6(1), 6-4.

“Just trying to capitalise more on these good points that I was hitting and not quite finishing, … that was the difference. She was able to finish points and I wasn’t.

“It’s one thing to lose, but today I competed, I fought my hardest but I don’t think I played the way I wanted to in the crucial moments.”

Potapova rattled Gauff with some powerful baseline hitting and broke to love in the opening game before taking a 4-2 lead when the American slipped and dropped to the floor of Court Philippe Chatrier while trying to reach the ball.

Gauff dusted herself off and won the next two games in front of a sparse centre court crowd with attention split between Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League football final with Arsenal in Budapest and home crowd favourite Moise Kouame in action.

Gauff’s premature exit leaves four-time champion Iga Swiatek and Sabalenka as the top contenders to win the Suzanne Lenglen Cup while Potapova will be viewed as the dark horse after having dished out a significant upset.

“I’m cramping a little bit, but it’s OK. It’s all good. I don’t have any words now. I’m extremely happy,” Potapova said in her on-court interview as she clutched her right arm after two hours and 37 minutes of big hitting.

“Coco’s such a champion, and I respect her so much. I’m unbelievably proud of myself that I stayed there and that I was fighting until the last point.”

Sabalenka earlier beat Kasatkina 6-0, 7-5 on a sun-drenched Court Suzanne Lenglen for her 100th win as the top-ranked woman, making her only the ninth player to achieve the feat since the inception of the WTA rankings.

She joined Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Chris Evert, Serena Williams, Martina Hingis, Monica Seles, Justine Henin and Swiatek on the honours list.

“I’ve got goosebumps,” said Sabalenka, who had struggled with dips in form and crippling service issues a few years ago.

“It means the world to me, and I’m just happy that in the tough moments I stayed tough. I was fighting and never gave up, and that is what it h