Last summer, as Iga Swiatek embarked on her defence of the French Open title, she spoke of treating the tournament just like any other. The season was long, she reasoned, and Roland Garros was not the be all and end all; there would be opportunities after Paris, just as there had been before.
Outwardly, Swiatek’s mindset, honed in collaboration with her psychologist Daria Abramowicz, was that of a seasoned champion: at ease with the cyclical nature of life on tour and fully aware that, come what may, the next big opportunity would come along soon enough.
But while the Pole made all the right noises, did she really believe in what she was saying? After all, barely seven months had passed since she stormed to her first grand slam title as a 19-year-old ranked 54th in the world, and while she arrived in the French capital fresh from a 6-0, 6-0 mauling of Karolina Pliskova in the Italian Open final, she remained a player whose achievements vastly outweighed her experience. That much was evident in the significance she attached to her success in Rome, which followed a title run in Adelaide three months earlier.
“Winning two titles, that was amazing for me, because I’m still not sure if I’m going to be consistent for the rest of my career,” said Swiatek. “This shows that I can perform well not only once, but I can repeat it.”
Impressive as those victories undoubtedly were, true consistency, the kind that creates a platform for multiple major titles and sustained dominance, takes longer to acquire. Swiatek’s subsequent progress to the Roland Garros quarter-finals, where she was hampered by a thigh injury as she fell to Maria Sakkari in straight sets, emphasised her undoubted pedigree while offering a reminder that no amount of talent can insulate against the natural vicissitudes of life on tour. Anxiety, off days and self-doubt go with the territory. It is the ability to overcome such challenges week in, week out, that defines the great champions, and that comes only with time, familiarity, knowhow.
In the end, Swiatek’s head could not fool her heart: however much she told herself the French Open was just another tournament, she knew it was anything but. “I couldn’t even sleep well yesterday,” she admitted after her defeat. “I slept like a few hours. I think I was feeling everything twice as much as I should. It was hard to rationally just see what’s going on.”
She vowed to learn the lessons of that experience and it is, paradoxically, a measure of how much has changed in the interim that Swiatek goes into this year’s tournament with exactly the same approach she adopted last time. “If I’m going to treat it as any other tournament, I think it’s going to be fine,” said the 20-year-old after defeating Ons Jabeur to complete the defence of her Rome title last week.
Why replicate an approach that previously failed to yield the desired outcome? Simple: Swiatek no longer needs to don the mantle of the battle-hardened winner in the hope that it will fit, because it now comes tailor-made, hers by right after an astonishing run of 28 consecutive wins and five straight titles. Champion in Qatar, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart and Rome, Swiatek has taken up the baton passed to her by the retired Ashleigh Barty and sprinted away from the chasing pack, making the No 1 ranking her own.
A notably more aggressive player under Tomasz Wiktorowski, the experienced Polish coach with whom she joined forces at the end of last season, Swiatek returns to Roland Garros an immeasurably more confident and versatile player than the teenager who lifted the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen in 2019. She has shown she can walk the talk, and starts the tournament as a nigh-on unbackable favourite. That she is nonetheless taking nothing for granted only spells further bad news for her rivals.
“I haven’t played a grand slam since the streak started,” said Swiatek, who will open her challenge against the Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko. “So I guess we’re going to see if everything I have been doing before is going to be enough. But I have really positive thoughts. Honestly, a couple of times during all these tournaments I was already stressed about [maintaining the winning streak], and I was able to work through it and do a really good job by just focusing on tennis. So hopefully I’m going to be able to continue that.”
Given that complacency seems unlikely to stop her, who might? The received wisdom is that Swiatek, who was beaten by Danielle Collins in the Australian Open semi-finals and former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko in Dubai, might be vulnerable to a big hitter. That should offer some encouragement to Liudmila Samsonova, the powerful 26th-ranked Russian who extended her to a third set in Stuttgart, and with whom she is projected to renew hostilities in round three.
Also on a potential collision course with the Pole is Ostapenko, the 13th seed, although the Latvian’s form has dipped since February, when she won in Dubai and reached the last four in Doha. If the seedings hold, Ostapenko would first need to get past Simona Halep, another former champion, who has been in renascent form since hiring Patrick Mouratoglou as her coach last month. From there, Swiatek is slated to meet Karolina Pliskova in the last eight, ahead of a potential semi-final against Paula Badosa, the Spanish third seed.
A deep run in Paris would be timely for Badosa, whose progress to the first major quarter-final of her career last year was among the highlights of a breakthrough season that included victory in Indian Wells and a first appearance at the WTA Finals. Despite reaching a career-high ranking of No 2 following Stuttgart, where she was a semi-finalist, the 24-year-old has had a largely underwhelming build-up to Roland Garros. She suffered early exits in Rome and Madrid, and has found it difficult to come to terms with the heightened expectations and scrutiny that accompany her elevated standing.
“It’s a tough situation that I’m learning,” said Badosa, who will face French wildcard Fiona Ferro in her opener. “I just want to try to manage as much as I can these kind of things, because everything is very new, so sometimes I get a little bit scared, and I feel that’s a little bit big for me.
“What I’m working on, is to try to feel free on court and try to raise my level. I think that when I feel free and I feel calm – of course, I will have nerves –I play well, and I’m competitive. So that’s what I want to try to find here in the French Open.”
Badosa is seeded to face Aryna Sabalenka, her conqueror in Stuttgart, in the last eight. After a difficult few months, the unpredictable Belarusian has shown some form of late, reaching the final in Stuttgart and the semis in Rome. On both occasions she ran into Swiatek, emerging from the two encounters with a collective total of seven games.
In the bottom half, defending champion Barbora Krejcikova returns from the elbow injury that has kept her out since February with minimal preparation and modest expectations. The Czech second seed starts her campaign against Diane Parry of France, the world No 96. Sloane Stephens, a finalist in Paris four years ago, potentially awaits a couple of rounds later, with Victoria Azarenka or Jil Teichmann, the in-form Swiss 23rd seed, potentially awaiting further down the line. The path to a projected quarter-final against fifth seed Anett Kontaveit looks fraught with hazard.
“I was off for quite a long time,” said Krejcikova, who acknowledged that she may have to rethink her long-term commitment to playing doubles in light of her injury problems. “I didn’t expect it, to be honest. But I’m healthy right now, I’m here, and it’s amazing to start at the place where I won my first slam last year.”
The player to watch in the lower half, however, is Jabeur, the champion in Madrid and a finalist at the Foro Italico, where her 11-match winning streak was broken by Swiatek. A repeat of that contest in Paris would no surprise. The Tunisian sixth seed is seeded to meet Maria Sakkari of Greece, who came within a point of reaching the final last year, in the last eight. She will rightly fear no one.
“I played quite a lot of matches on clay,” said Jabeur. “I feel good. I have always loved Roland Garros. I started by winning the junior tournament here, and it’s a very good memory. I wanted to win as a professional player. I work on a match-per-match basis. I like pressure, I like being one of the favourites in this tournament.”
The problem for Jabeur, as for the rest of the field, is the looming presence of a relaxed and confident Swiatek.
“I proved to myself and to other people that I can be at the top of the game,” said Swiatek. ”Before, I wasn’t feeling that much confidence. This year, I feel much more peace.”
Swiatek’s calm will be a source of consternation for anyone with ambitions of stopping her.