But after her unscripted appeal to the Paris public to refrain from crying out during rallies, which followed a nail-biting victory from match point down against Naomi Osaka two days ago, Swiatek could have been forgiven for wondering how she would be received as she stepped on to Court Philippe Chatrier to face Marie Bouzkova.

In a week when crowd behaviour at Roland Garros has come under intense scrutiny, the top seed’s words seemed as bold as her tennis, but any fears she may have harboured over the consequences of speaking out were immediately allayed. Swiatek was greeted by a roar of approval and enjoyed warm support throughout as she marked her 23rd birthday with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Bouzkova, before the stadium treated her to a chorus of Happy Birthday. 

Evidently there are no hard feelings.

“I enjoyed playing today,” Swiatek, who notably enjoyed respectful silence as she went about her business, told Fabrice Santoro in her on-court interview. 

“Marie is a difficult player, because she’s really good at defence, every ball will come back. I really wanted to be patient and solid, and not rush it. I’m happy at the end that I did that.”

It was a predictably challenging afternoon for Bouzkova, who recognised the futility of trying to contain Swiatek’s aggression in the baseline exchanges and tailored her tactics accordingly. There were signs of promise for the 25-year-old when she ventured to the net in the early stages, while her intelligent variations of height and spin contributed to an unexpected dip from Swiatek late in the first set. 

Ultimately, though, Bouzkova lacked the brute force to trouble the defending champion as Osaka had done, Swiatek’s depth and weight of shot pinning her to the baseline, where she spent much of the afternoon scurrying fruitlessly from corner to corner. With Swiatek stepping into her returns, the Czech won less than a third of her second serve points, while the Pole’s superior firepower yielded 34 winners – exactly double Bouzkova’s total. After the heightened emotions of her previous match, following which TV cameras captured Swiatek wiping away tears as she lay on a gym mat, it was no doubt the kind of relatively straightforward afternoon she needed.

“Maybe I was crying because there are cameras in the gym,” quipped Swiatek, who took advantage of the inclement weather in Paris to enjoy a rest day. 

“[I was] just overwhelmed with emotions, I honestly thought that I’m going to be out of the tournament, and even though I felt something on the court, it kind of hit me after. 

“I was happy that I won, but I still felt like I was really on the edge, so I just cried.”

There was much mirth on court afterwards when Swiatek, who will face Anastasia Potapova in the last 16, was unable to recall the name of the park she visited on her day off, sparking an off-mic conversation with Santoro and some helpful suggestions from the crowd. No fan of uncertainty, Swiatek later took to social media to offer clarification: “National Estate of Saint-Cloud,” she confirmed on X, shortly after tournament organisers had presented her with a large cake.

Elsewhere, Ons Jabeur celebrated with uncharacteristic gusto after defeating Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) to reach the second week in Paris for a fourth time in five years. Jabeur, seeded eighth, will now meet Clara Tauson for the first time after the 21-year-old Dane beat former finalist Sofia Kenin 6-2, 7-5. 

“Just reminding everyone that I’m still here,” said Jabeur, who saved a set point in the second set. “It’s also nice to prove for myself, because I’ve been in a bad place for months, trying to gain back my confidence.”

Coco Gauff, the third seed, remains on course for a projected semi-final meeting with Swiatek, easing past Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-4. The US Open champion will now face Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, a 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 winner over Liudmila Samsonova, the 17th seed.

“I love the courts here,” said the 51st-ranked Cocciaretto. “It reminds me a lot of the courts where I was born. I have very good memories of when I was a kid, watching on TV all the Italian players that were playing Roland Garros. Italians, we were born on clay.”

The most emotional scenes of the day came on Court Simmone-Mathieu, where Olga Danilovic, a 23-year-old qualifier from Serbia, showed extraordinary resilience to defeat Donna Vekic 0-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10-8). Danilovic, who has already claimed notable wins over Martina Trevisan and Danielle Collins, recovered from 6-2 down in the decisive tiebreak after Vekic had twice served for the match.

“I don’t know how I won this match, I was down so many times,” said Danilovic, overwhelmed by emotion, after reaching the second week of a major for the first time. 

“Yesterday I finished so late, 6.30[pm], and I got the time for today ,and it was 11am. I knew that I had to put myself together to sleep as much as I can, just to try to play. 

“But I practise for these kinds of moments. When they come, I really want to take the best out of them, just enjoy being here and enjoy suffering as well. In tennis, at the end, sometimes you really need to suffer, like I did today.”

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“Thank you,” she mouthed, hands clasped to her chest, as she soaked up the crowd’s applause, turning to gaze wistfully at all four sides of the court. Then, with a final glance back over her shoulder – as much, perhaps, at the past 27 years of her life as her immediate surroundings – she turned on her heel and was gone.

“There’s sadness, there’s happiness, there’s a bit of everything,” said Kontaveit, who is retiring because of a chronic back injury, after her 6-1, 6-2 defeat to the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova.

“It was incredible to have Court 18 full of people, so many people cheering for me.

“Of course, the match didn’t go the way I wanted it to, but I was so happy to be able to play in front of so many people, that so many people that love me were able to see me play for the last times in singles.”

Although she remains in the mixed doubles alongside Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori, it felt like a fitting farewell for Kontaveit, an understated Estonian who was ranked No 2 in the world this time last year.

For all her success, Kontaveit has never craved the limelight. Even when she was scheduled on Court 6 in the opening round, raising the possibility that she would play the final match of her career on a stage with just a few scattered benches for spectators, her reaction barely ranged beyond mild disappointment.

“I do hope to get a bigger court next time,” she said. “I was not expecting to play on Centre Court or a huge court anyway. It’s their decision and [there’s] nothing I can do about it.”

That kind of humility is one of the qualities that has made Kontaveit a firm favourite in the locker room. First to congratulate her on a career that reached its zenith with a remarkable late-season flourish in 2021, when she won titles in Cleveland, Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca to break into the top eight and qualify for the season-ending WTA finals, was Bouzkova, who embraced her warmly at the net. 

“Congratulations for your incredible career, Anett,” Bouzkova, the 32nd seed, later wrote on Instagram. “You will be missed and we all wish to see you come back.”

Those sentiments were widely echoed. 

“Congratulations on your career and thank you for every memory,” wrote Iga Swiatek, the world No 1.

“Anett, my friend, your joy, your warmth and energy will be missed,” said Ons Jabeur, the sixth seed, in a Twitter post. “Congratulations on an amazing career. Thank you for all the memories. Lots of love.”

Kontaveit, who is studying psychology at Indiana University, said she hoped to remain connected to tennis in her native Estonia, although she has no specific plans at this stage. Given the emotional nature of her final singles match, which ended with both Kontaveit and her mother Ülle in tears, that seems entirely understandable.

Kontaveit’s most notable results came at the 2020 Australian Open, where she was a quarter-finalist, and at the WTA Finals the following year, where she was beaten in the final by Garbiñe Muguruza. However, Kontaveit, who won the last of her six titles in St Petersburg on Valentine’s Day 2022, said her maiden title, which came in s’Hertogenbosch in 2017, would remain her most cherished memory.

“I think nothing beats winning a tournament, so I’d say winning my first WTA tournament,” said Kontaveit.

The Estonian’s retirement comes after a degenerative condition in her lower spine left her unable to train or compete without pain. Unable to sit or stand in the same position for long periods, she is hopeful that her decision to stop will afford her greater comfort in everyday life.

“Now I feel at peace with it, but it was definitely difficult before, especially right before the announcement,” Kontaveit told the WTA. “It was very hard. I was just sad and upset. It’s been my whole life. This is what I’ve done for most of the 27 years that I’ve lived. 

“It was a difficult thing to process. But one day I woke up, and I was feeling happy again. I think time sort of helped me come to terms with it.”

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As things turned out, Swiatek is not quite the grass-court specialist her early results might have suggested. But the two-time French Open champion is pretty useful on clay, a reality with which Pera became acquainted at first hand as Swiatek quashed any ambitions her opponent harboured of drawing her into another dogfight with an emphatic 6-3, 6-2 win at the Madrid Open.

It was a focused, disciplined performance from the world No 1, who was no more dismayed by the challenge of facing a dangerous, free-swinging southpaw than she has been by the altitude at the only big clay-court event she has yet to win.

“I wouldn’t say it was easy, every match is tricky here,” said Swiatek after reaching the last 16, just as she did on her only previous appearance at the Caja Mágica. 

“I’m pretty happy that I’ve played a little bit better every day, and I’m happy that I’m getting my rhythm. But playing a lefty is never easy. I think Bernarda really used it.”

Use it Pera did, troubling Swiatek in the early stages with her swinging left-handed serves and weighty forehands. The 28-year-old, who left her native Croatia at the age of 16 to represent the US, is an accomplished performer on the red dirt, as she demonstrated over a memorable fortnight last summer when she won the first tour-level singles titles of her career in Budapest and Hamburg. Capable of playing the brand of bold, first-strike tennis that has proved most effective against Swiatek, Pera threw down the gauntlet in the early stages, recovering from 0-40 to hold her opening service game before breaking to love behind some crushing returns.

They were fine moments for the American, but these days it takes more than just fine moments to defeat Swiatek. The Pole immediately replied in kind, peppering Pera’s backhand to claim a love break, and from there she never looked back. Indeed, such was Swiatek’s mastery that she dropped only seven more points on serve – a reminder of how much the bite and penetration of her delivery has improved since she was was beaten two years ago on the same court by Ashleigh Barty, who subjected her second serve to the sternest of examinations. 

With this result, Swiatek racked up a half-century of clay-court wins to overtake Serena Williams as the player with the highest winning percentage in clay-court events at this level. Given her consistency and quality of movement on the surface, not to mention her ability to attack or defend with equal dexterity, both statistics are likely to improve.

“Having both things combined and being able to do both, like Rafa [Nadal] or Novak [Djokovic] – they can play great in defence and kind of be patient, and also they can attack well – I think this should be the goal of every tennis player,” said Swiatek, who will face Ekaterina Alexandrova after the Russian 16th seed saw off China’s Qinwen Zheng 5-7, 6-4, 6-2. “That’s why we are working on both.”

Jessica Pegula also advanced in straight sets, although the only straightforward thing about her win over the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova was the 6-4, 7-6 (7-2) scoreline. On a day when little came easily to the third seed, Pegula went up 5-2 only to find herself unexpectedly detained as Bouzkova, who had won three of their four previous meetings, fought off five set points. At the sixth time of asking, the American finally seized the initiative with a crunching forehand winner before establishing a commanding 2-0, 40-0 lead in the second set.

Again, though, Bouzkova battled her way back into contention, capitalising on some overcautious play from Pegula to fend off two match points in the 10th game, before forcing a tiebreak. 

“Marie is always tough, it’s a tough match-up for me,” said Pegula, who will face Italy’s Martina Trevisan, the 16th seed, for a place in the quarter-finals. 

“I don’t really love to play her, she always makes it very difficult, and we’ve had a lot of close matches, so I’m glad I won.”

In the men’s draw, Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev made relatively comfortable progress after being taken the distance in their opening matches. 

Alcaraz, who struggled to find his range against Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori on Friday, delivered a vastly improved performance to see off Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov. After racing through the first set, the Spanish defending champion recovered from a break down in the second to seal a 6-2, 7-5 win. Zverev, who needed over three hours to subdue Roberto Carballes Baena in his opener, defeated Hugo Grenier of France 6-1, 6-0. 

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