World No. 1 Iga Swiatek easily defeated French qualifier Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2 in the first round and began her pursuit of three consecutive French Open titles, starting a battle with the French player. A highly anticipated contest.
The match will be the first head-to-head meeting in two years between the two most successful players in the draw – two four-time Grand Slam champions. Osaka, who continues her maternity leave as an unseeded player, advanced to the second round with a narrow 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 victory over Lucia Bronzetti on Sunday, where she will face the tournament favorite. becomes a clear disadvantage.
“Really impressed,” Swiatek said of Osaka’s return from maternity leave. “I think she’s a great person and her style of play is interesting. I haven’t actually played against Naomi on clay yet, so we’ll see how it goes. Of course, we need to be tactical. Preparation. But all these games we have on hard courts are always very intense and tough, so I’m glad she’s back and she’s playing even more games than she did before the break.
With another successful fortnight at Roland Garros, Swiatek could close the gap on Justine Henin, the greatest women’s clay court player of the 21st century. Another title would equal Henin’s total of four in Paris and the Belgian’s three-match winning streak between 2005 and 2007. player, she now has a 13-game winning streak.
“The past games have taught me a lot,” the Pole said. “I played successfully [good] Tennis in any condition, in any situation. I’m really proud of myself, but even though I’m really confident, I don’t want to take anything for granted. Coco Gauff followed Swiatek into the second round, easily defeating Julia Avdeeva 6-1, 6-1.
In the men’s draw, Jannik Sinner returned to action after a hip injury and easily defeated Christopher Eubanks 6-3, 6-3, 6-4. “I will only compete if my hip is back to 100 percent,” the Italian said. “The butt looks good. I’m very happy with it. As I said before, the overall shape is not where I want it to be, but it takes time.
Elsewhere, Cameron Norrie’s clay-court season came to a brutal end as he held a two-sets-one lead against Russian world number 56 Pavel Kotov 4-6 , 6-3, 3-6, 7-6, lost (5), 6-2 on Monday afternoon.
Nouri arrived in Paris in good shape, having beaten all lower-ranked players he faced during the clay-court season and only lost to higher-ranked opponents such as Stefanos Tsitsipas of Rome and Casper Rudd in Madrid. Norrie took control of the match from the start, leading by two points at 5-5 in the second-set tiebreaker before making two poor backhand errors.
Harriet Dart lost 7-6 (3), 6-4 to 27th seed Linda Noskova, losing all four British players so far . No. 26 seed Katie Bolt will face Paola Badosa on Tuesday, and Dan Evans will play No. 13 seed Holger Ruhn.
