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World No. 1 Iga Swiatek celebrated her 23rd birthday in Grand Slam fashion on Friday, defeating Czech Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2 to easily move into the Round of 16 at the French Open in Paris. Swiatek, of Poland, advanced to the fourth round at Paris for the sixth consecutive year.

She has won the past two titles and three overall at Roland Garros. She needed just 93 minutes to defeat Bouzkova -- who has 10 career wins against top-10 players -- in their first-ever match. Swiatek struck 32 winners compared to 16 for Bouzkova and broke her serve four times.



The victory continued an incredible run at Roland Garros, where Swiatek is 18-0 in the first week of the tournament in her career and 32-2 overall. Also posting an efficient win Friday was third-seeded Coco Gauff, who eliminated Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine 6-2, 6-4. While Gauff wasn't at her sharpest -- eight winners compared to 24 unforced errors -- she won the match on defense, breaking Yastremska's serve in five of nine service games.

It's become a strength for reigning U.S. Open champ Gauff this season, winning 49 percent of her return games, according to the WTA.

"One thing I learned from Serena (Williams), she would spend probably like an hour sometimes literally just hitting returns," Gauff said, per the WTA Tour website. "I took inspiration from that because that's the first part of the point. I think the average rally is like four or five balls.

The first two balls are really important. "For me, returns were somethin.

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