On a day when Wimbledon champ Elena Rybakina withdrew from the tournament with illness, this youthful battle on Saturday was one of the most anticipated clashes of the week with Gauff taking on a player younger than her for just the third time in her senior career.

Sixteen-year-old Andreeva swept through qualifying before dropping just six games in her first two rounds at her debut grand slam.

Gauff and Andreeva's combined age is younger than Novak Djokovic, and the 19-year-old American looked like she could lose to a player her junior for the first time on Saturday.

But Andreeva was unable to sustain the level she showed in winning the first set and bowed out with a 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-1 defeat.

There were moments of youthful petulance from Andreeva that she will need to stamp out, though, particularly an incident late in the tie-break when she swiped a ball angrily into the crowd.

She earned a code violation but was fortunate she did not hurt a spectator, which could have seen her disqualified.

"Right after I thought that it was a really stupid move from me, because it was not necessary to do that," she said. "It was really bad what I did. I had thoughts like this (a potential default), but he just gave me a warning."

The Russian is undoubtedly a player of huge potential and she more than matched Gauff during a high-class first set full of fierce shot-making and court craft.

Gauff knows better than anyone the position Andreeva is in, and she said: "Mirra's super young and she has a big future. I remember I was here playing at 16 years old so she has a lot to look forward to. I'm sure you'll see a lot more matches between us."

The tournament lost one of its title favourites before the start of the day when Rybakina withdrew, revealing she had been struggling with a virus for two days.

The 23-year-old had appeared to be the biggest obstacle to Iga Swiatek reaching another final having won all three matches between them this season.

The world No.1 was in ruthless form on Philippe Chatrier, defeating an opponent 6-0 6-0 for the fourth time in her career and first at a grand slam.

China's Wang Xinyu was the unfortunate recipient as Swiatek hit top form at Roland Garros - four of the six sets she has played so far this year have now been bagels.

Swiatek has gained a reputation for the number of sets she wins easily, and social media was awash with talk of her 'bagel factory'.

"I don't want to really talk about that," said the 22-year-old. "I really get why people do that, because it's fun and tennis is entertainment and everything. But, from the players' point of view, I want to be respectful to my opponents."

Tunisian seventh seed Ons Jabeur overcame a bad start to reach the fourth round with a 4-6 6-4 6-2 victory over Serbian qualifier Olga Danilovic

Meanwhile, the seventh night session on Sunday will belatedly feature a women's match for the first time, with Aryna Sabalenka's clash against former finalist Sloane Stephens selected for the prime-time slot.

Organisers have again come under fire after only picking one women's match across the fortnight last year.

Australian Associated Press