What’s more, when these players progress this far, they ultimately begin facing one another in matches of extra gravitas.
This will be the case when Swiatek and Vondrousova battle for a place in the semifinals.
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“We played a couple matches on the hard courts. But obviously she’s feeling great here. She won 6-Love, 6-Love today. So I expect a tough match,” said Vondrousova, who trails the head-to-head series 0-3.
“But yeah, now I’m in position. I have nothing to lose. So I’m just going to go and try to enjoy the match and just try to maybe play a good match.”
The winner of that match could then meet Gauff, should the American beat Ons Jabeur in the other quarterfinal of the top half of the draw.
GRAND SLAM WOMEN’S MATCHES
BETWEEN REIGNING MAJOR CHAMPIONS*
*Reigning major champions in a traditional 12-month cycle; Swiatek played Halep at AO 2021 when Halep had won the most recent Wimbledon 18 months earlier in 2019 (no Wimbledon in 2020)
Such matches have not been a common occurrence at Grand Slam tournaments until this era of consistency in the women’s game.
Prior to 2023, you had to go back to 2016 – the Wimbledon final between Serena Williams and Angelique Kerber – to find a women’s match featuring two reigning major champions from the previous 12 months.
Meanwhile, Jabeur’s quarterfinal run means that in the top half of the draw, all four quarterfinal slots have been filled by top-eight seeds.
The last time this happened in one half of the women’s draw at Roland Garros was 17 years ago.
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Jabeur is still seeking a first Grand Slam title – she is a three-time finalist – but another Grand Slam champion still alive in Paris is 2022 Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina.
Should she and Sabalenka win on Monday, it would be the first time since Australian Open 2013 that five former Grand Slam champions featured in the quarterfinal line-up at the same Slam.
FORMER MAJOR CHAMPIONS
INTO AO 2013 WOMEN’S QFs
This has not happened at Roland Garros since 2006, when Venus Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Justine Henin, Martina Hingis and Kim Clijsters all progressed to the last eight.