PARIS: Three-time defending champion Iga Swiatek set up a blockbuster French Open semi-final clash with world number one Aryna Sabalenka on Tuesday, with Lorenzo Musetti reaching the last-four on the men`s side.

Swiatek, the fifth seed, got past 13th-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-1, 7-5 in Paris after top women`s seed Sabalenka won a nervy quarter-final against Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.

`[Aryna] has been having a great season so I`m not going to lie, it is going to be a tough match. But I`m happy for the challenge,` said Swiatek after reeling off her 26th win in a row at the French Open.

Both players have shared the number one ranking between them since April 2022.

Sabalenka ended Swiatek`s 11-month reign as world number one last October but the Pole leads 8-4 in their previous meetings.

World number five Swiatek has been struggling for her best form and has not reached a final since winning the French Open title last year.

But she gave Svitolina little opportunity on her favoured clay surface, breaking in the fourth game to ease through the first set.

The pair exchanged consecutive breaks of serve early in the second set, before Swiatek forced the break-through at 5-5 with a powerful forehand down the line.

She then sealed the win with back-to-back aces.

Swiatek is aiming to become the first woman to win four straight Roland Garros crowns since Suzanne Lenglen 102 years ago.

Earlier, reigning US Open champion Sabalenka defied the windy conditions and Zheng to avenge her recent loss to the Chinese star in Rome.

`The last tournament I was pretty exhausted,` said Sabalenka. `Today I was more fresh I was ready to battle.

Sabalenka once again got the upper hand on Zheng, who had been on a winning streak of 10 matches on the Paris clay after her run to Olympic gold last year.

Zheng broke and led 4-2 in the first set. But numerous unforced errors 31 in total allowed the Belarusian to come back.

The second set was also tight before Sabalenka broke back to lead 4-3, taking advantage of her opponent`s errors.

`I gave her the chance, so easy, said Zheng, who has lost seven times in eight meetings to Sabalenka, including in last year`s Australian Open final.

Madrid Open champion Sabalenka feels she is ready to go all the way in Paris, where her previous best performance was reaching thesemi-finals two years ago.

`It`s high-level matches. I`m super excited to go out there and to fight and to do everything I need to get the win,` said Sabalenka of her tie against Swiatek.

With the main arena finally almost full, Italian craftsman Musetti used his full palette of shots to decorate Court Philippe Chatrier with blistering baseline winners, beating American Frances Tiafoe 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 to reach the semifinals for the first time.

Despite a few muddled moments, the world number seven set up a meeting with either defending champion Carlos Alcaraz or Tommy Paul of the US as he continues his renaissance after some soul searching.

Musetti, who said he put some order in his mind and game, did not let frustration take the best of him after losing the second set and once he found his groove, there was no stopping him as 15th seed Tiafoe gradually lost the plot, twice arguing with the chair umpire over line calls.

He bowed out with yet another routine shot into the net, his `Big Foe` neck chain dripping with sweat as a testimony of the battle just fought.

`Definitely Frances did not start the way he wanted but today was really complicated, it was so windy and difficult to manage to properlyhit the ball,` said Musetti, the only man to reach at least the semi-finals of every main claycourt event this season.

`The third set was a fight and even if I was a little tired I found the extra energy to win this set and the last set was probably the best set of this match.

Musetti is one of the rare top players using the single-handed backhand, a vintage shot often praised by tennis connoisseurs.

`We are Italian, we are elegant, he joked. `Joke aside, I have a little bit of a retro style.

On Monday, world number one Jannik Sinner produced another masterclass to blaze into the quarter-finals.

Sinner, who returned from a three-month doping ban last month at the Italian Open, lit up the night session with a sublime display to beat Andrey Rublev 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 and stretch his winning streak in Grand Slam play to 18 matches.

Italian Sinner, the US and Australian Open champion, has won all 12 sets he has played this year on Parisian clay and looks in ominous form as he closes on a first French Open title and will face the unseeded Alexander Bublik for a place in the last four.

`Today was a very good performance but we try to keep going and see how it goes,` said the three-time major champion.-Agencies