For a woman who leaves nothing to chance on court, Iga Swiatek has little time for the finer details of her sport beyond the white lines.
When it was put to her earlier in the week that a successful title defence at the French Open would put her level with Serena Williams, Monica Seles, and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario on three wins, Swiatek replied that she was not interested in history and statistics.
“I’m living my own life and having my own journey,” said the Polish world No 1.
It follows that Swiatek will not care a jot that, with her 6-4, 6-0 win over Claire Liu of the US, she now stands behind only Seles, Chris Evert and Margaret Court for percentage of love sets won at grand slams in the open era. She may enjoy baking bagels, but Swiatek has scant interest in savouring them.
Some details do merit attention, however, and in the heat of battle Swiatek misses nothing. Her latest victory was a case in point.
On another day of bright sunshine and swirling winds at Roland Garros, Swiatek raced out to an early 3-0 lead only for Liu, a gifted and intelligent 23-year-old from the US, to start finding solutions. Taking a leaf out of what is becoming a well-thumbed playbook, the world No 102 moved inside the baseline and began cracking returns off Swiatek’s second serve, harrying the Pole into error. On a day when both players landed just 55% of their first serves, opportunities to implement the tactic were plentiful.
Not for the first time in such circumstances, Swiatek began to rush, lapsing into error. Indeed, 15 of her 23 unforced errors came in the opening set. The Pole’s frustration as Liu drew level was evident and, although she immediately forged ahead for a second time, securing what would prove a decisive break with a beautifully angled return winner, the early pattern of the set was not one she would care to revisit.
So when Swiatek reeled off three straight games at the start of the second set only to find herself in trouble on serve again, she was not about to let history repeat itself. Patiently navigating her way through a nine-minute game, Swiatek saw off a trio of break points, rifling a backhand winner either side of two carefully constructed rallies that in which she prised mistakes from Liu. While it remained heavy going for the defending champion, the American’s challenge was effectively extinguished.
“It’s not easy, especially when we’re constantly switching sides and we’re playing one time with the wind and one time against,” Swiatek told two-time finalist Alex Corretja in her on-court interview.
“I really needed to adjust to that, but I’m pretty happy that I managed to play the second set a little bit better and just learn from the first set.”
Swiatek often talks of learning, be it from her previous experience of a tournament, a situation, or a set. Further evidence that she pays close attention to the details that matter came when she characterised the early stages of the match as an information-gathering exercise.
“I was able to play a little bit better in the second set, and I kind of used first set to get more information and get into the rhythm,” said Swiatek.
One statistic that might please the Pole is that, in the opening set, her average forehand speed was the same as that of last year’s men’s finalist Casper Ruud, who overcame spirited resistance from Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppiere to win 6-6, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5. According to analysis provided by Eurosport, both players averaged just over 80mph.
The number that seemed uppermost in the world No 1’s mind, however, was 22 – the age that she turned on Wednesday and also a track by her favourite singer, Taylor Swift. The champion afterwards signed a TV camera lens with a line from the song: “I’m feeling 22”. Perhaps her taste for statistics is growing: this time last year, Swiatek forgot her age and accidentally wrote “#22” on a camera, prompting some hasty live editing.
Elsewhere, Elena Rybakina, the fourth seed and reigning Wimbledon champion, remained on course for a projected semi-final meeting with Swiatek with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over 18-year-old Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic. Rybakina, who has defeated Swiatek in Melbourne and Indian Wells this season, and recently claimed another success her in Rome when the Pole was forced to retire with a thigh injury, was likewise forced to overcome a mini-crisis midway through the second set, staving off three break points before driving for the line.
“She was playing really well, especially the serve,” Rybakina said of Noskova. “But from my side I wasn’t happy so much with the percentage of the serve.
“A lot of mistakes. I would say I was rushing. Overall, it’s just good that I managed to win.”
The bottom half of the men’s draw, already blown open by the defeat of second seed Daniil Medvedev, became more open still as Germany’s Daniel Altmaier, the world No 79, survived two match points to stun Jannik Sinner, the eighth seed, 6-7 (0-7), 7-6 (9-7) 1-6, 7-6 (7-4) 7-5. In a contest of high drama and high quality, Altmaier came through an epic final game to win what was, at five hours and 26 minutes, the fifth longest match in French Open history, before weeping his way through a standing ovation as the crowd chanted his name.