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Ash Barty has continued her remarkable comeback season but her leading French Open rivals Simona Halep, Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka have all flopped in Rome.
Ash Barty is through to a seventh quarter-final in her phenomenal comeback season after continuing her clay-court charge at the Italian Open.
Australia's world No.1 dispatched Russian Veronika Kudermetova 6-3 6-3 on Thursday to improve her tour-best win-loss record in 2021 to 27-4 and edge ever closer to a fourth title of the year.
Kudermetova has enjoyed a fine season herself, securing a maiden WTA title on green clay in Charleston in April.
But the world No.26 was unable to stop the Queensland juggernaut on Europe's red dirt as Barty once again emphatically underlined her favouritism for a second French Open crown next month in three years.
In an extraordinary return since sitting out almost 12 full months during the coronavirus pandemic, Barty has reached at least the quarter-finals in seven of the eight events she's contested in 2021.
She's won three titles from four finals and is well on track for a fourth as her greatest threats continue to tumble in Rome.
Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka and Simona Halep all crashed out on Wednesday.
Then Aryna Sabalenka, the Belarusian who snapped Barty's 16-match clay-court winning streak in the Madrid Open final last weekend, fell 7-5 6-3 to American teenage sensation Coco Gauff on Thursday.
In her opening match on Wednesday, Barty was given an early examination by Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova before reeling off 10 of the last 11 games to win 6-4 6-1 in 78 minutes.
By the end, she was in the groove which saw her power to the Stuttgart title and last week's final in Madrid as she sets her sights on another clay-court title.
But Williams was out of sorts in her 1000th career match, the 23-times grand slam champion outplayed by Nadia Podoroska 7-6 (8-6) 7-5, as she succumbed in her first contest since defeat to Osaka in the Australian Open semi-finals in February.
Japan's four-time major winner Osaka also suffered lost 7-6 (7-2) 6-2 to Australian Open quarter-finalist Jessica Pegula and Halep had to retire during her match with Angelique Kerber with a calf injury, raising doubts over the world No.3's participation at Roland Garros.