World No.1 Iga Swiatek opened her San Diego Open champion with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 victory over No.28 Zheng Qinwen. Swiatek will face No.8 Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals on Friday. 

Playing her first match since the Ostrava final, Swiatek weathered both the rainy conditions and Zheng's heavy power game to earn her tour-leading 61st win of the year. San Diego will be her 12th quarterfinal of the season, also a tour-leading mark.

"Qinwen, she has a different game style because she's playing topspin on her forehand and the ball is flying pretty high," Swiatek said. "So today I had to adjust to that.

"But overall, the first matches of any tournament is about adjusting to the conditions we have here."

After a short rain delay, Swiatek pocketed the opening set with solid baseline play, absorbing Zheng's heavy pace and using her courtcraft to open up space on the court. After saving the only break point she faced in the set, Swiatek broke with a clean forehand return at 4-all and served out the opener. She outhit Zheng with 11 winners to 6 and limited Zheng's second-serve success to 40%. 

The second set went with serve before Zheng found herself facing multiple break points at 4-all. Zheng saved all five break points she faced before holding to 5-4, saving the first two with clean winners and engineering an audacious serve-and-volley play on the third. In the next game, Zheng finally broke Swiatek's serve to force the Pole into her third consecutive three-set match.

Turning point: Zheng earned an early break point at 1-0 in the final set, but Swiatek fought it off with just her second ace of the day. Swiatek went on to hold and broke Zheng for the first time since the first set to lead 2-1. With the lead in hand, Swiatek broke once more and took care of her serve to close out the win. 

The victory moves Swiatek to 14-4 in three-set matches this season. She has not lost in the opening round of a tournament since 2021 Cincinnati, over a year ago.

Stat of the match: With titles in Indian Wells, Miami, and the US Open, she is now 21-1 in the United States this season.

Highlights: Gauff rallies to defeat Andreescu in first meeting

The French Open final rematch is on: Swiatek will face No.8 Gauff in a rematch of the French Open final. It will be the fourth meeting between the two junior contemporaries and their third of the season. Swiatek has won all six sets they've played, first in Rome last year, and Miami and Paris this spring. In both their meetings this year, Swiatek did not lose more than four games.

Swiatek charges past Gauff to win second Roland Garros title

Gauff came through a physical battle against Bianca Andreescu, coming back from a break down in the third set to win 6-4, 4-6, 6-3. Gauff was broken in her first service game of each set, but kept her cool to take advantage of Andreescu's occasional dips. 

Gauff was twice a point away from falling behind a double-break in the final set, but gamely dug out of a 15-40 hole at 0-2. A string of over-aggressive errors from Andreescu at 3-2 gave Gauff an opportunity to get back on serve and the 18-year-old capitalized to level at 3-all. 

Gauff continued her surge of momentum to break Andreescu again for a 5-3 lead and the American closed out the match after 2 hours and 30 minutes.