Fans on Court Philippe Chatrier regaled the defending champion Iga Swiatek with the Happy Birthday song on Friday afternoon after the top seed celebrated her 23rd birthday with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over the unseeded Czech Marie Bouzkova to reach the last-16 at the French Open.
Two days ago on the same court, Swiatek saved a match point to emerge from a three-hour struggle with the former world number one Naomi Osaka.
After her win, she used her on-court interview to plead with spectators to control themselves and not scream out during points.
Less than 18 hours after her comments about the poor etiquette on one of the most famous courts in world tennis, French Open tournament director Amélie Mauresmo announced a package of measures including a ban on alcohol in the stands in an effort to reduce rowdy antics.
Any fears of a fan backlash were quickly dispelled as the Pole walked onto the centre court amid cheers.
She served for the opener at 5-2 but fluffed that chance. But the three-time champion made no mistakes at the second time of asking. Bouzkova, ranked 41 places beneath Swiatek, showed superb athleticism to keep herself in several rallies but Swiatek's superior firepower and court craft crushed her resistance.
"It was a long match on Wednesday but I felt fine physically," Swiatek told on-court interviewer Fabrice Santoro. "Marie is a difficult player so I am happy to win in straight sets."
Elsewhere in the top half of the women's draw, third seed Coco Gauff disposed of the 30th seed Dayana Yastremska in straight sets and eighth seed Ons Jabeur exhibited more composure on the key points to overcome the Canadian Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 7-6 on Court Suzanne Lenglen.
The 2020 runner-up Sofia Kenin went down to the 21-year-old Dane Clara Tauson whose 6-2, 7-5 victory took her into the last-16 at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time.
Olga Danilovic from Serbia emulated the Dane. The 23-year-old, who came through the three qualifying rounds, shrugged off an abject first set to beat the experienced Croatian Donna Vekic 0-6, 7-5, 7-6 after three hours and eight minutes.
Relief
Following the victory Danilovic burst into tears. "For me it was just big, big relief," she said. "I fought for every shot. Every shot that I could get to hit back, I did. So it was like a proud moment to soak it in."
In the bottom half of the men's draw, the unseeded Italian Matteo Arnaldi shocked the sixth seed Andrey Rublev from Russia in straight sets.
"The point was to not play in same rhythm as him," said Arnaldi. "Because he hits faster than me. I tried to do a lot of variation and I think I did it pretty well," he added. "I served really well especially in the important moments. That's what helped a lot."
Arnaldi's more celebrated compatriot Jannik Sinner also reached the last-16. The second seed eased past the unseeded Russian Pavel Kotov 6-4, 6-4, 6-4. It was even more composed for the ninth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas. The 25-year-old Greek beat Zhizhen Zhang 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 in 91 minutes.
