You wait years for a friends’ reunion and then two come along in a week. Iga Swiatek, the defending champion, opened the defence of her French Open title with a straight sets victory over her close friend Kara Juvan of Slovenia, marking her 20th birthday with a 6-0, 7-5 win.
Swiatek was afterwards treated to a chorus of “Happy Birthday” by Marion Bartoli, who must have been inwardly cursing the restricted crowd numbers on a muted Court Philippe-Chatrier. The Pole was even gifted the first set by Juvan.
Yet this was no party for Swiatek, who was made to work hard by the 101st-ranked Slovenian despite a 23-minute first set that evoked memories of her 6-0, 6-0 against Karolina Pliskova in Rome a fortnight ago. Had Juvan not narrowly missed the line when she had a break point for a 6-5 second set lead, it might have been a very different story.
Swiatek and Juvan have been good friends since they were 13, when they met at a junior summer cup competition, and the defending champion had anticipated a tough match. Swiatek was taken the distance by her opponent in Melbourne earlier this year. Here, though, there were no signs of the early nerves that afflicted her on that occasion.
Instead, Swiatek began this French Open much as she had finished the last one, which she blitzed through without losing a set. It took the eighth seed just 23 minutes to claim all but nine of the 35 points contested in the opening set. Just when it looked like a whitewash might be on the cards, however, Juvan steadied the ship, combining her powerful serves and groundstrokes with drop shots and variations of spin to throw off Swiatek’s rhythm.
Asked by Bartoli how she had coped with facing her best friend, Swiatek said: “You always have to distance that because on court we have no friends, we are opponents. Sometimes it’s hard to switch these two moods, but I feel like I’m better and better at it because I played against Kaja at the beginning of the season. In the second set it was really, really hard, she used every chance she had. She didn’t give me any birthday gifts.”
Swiatek will play Rebecca Peterson in round two after the Swede defeated Shelby Rogers 6-7 (3-7), 7-6 (10-8), 6-2.
Elsewhere in the women’s draw, it was a day of major scares and upsets among the top seeds.
The highest profile casualty was Bianca Andreescu, the sixth seed and former US Open champion, who lost an epic contest to Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (7-2), 9-7 in three hours and 20 minutes.
“I didn’t feel like I played good tennis today,” said Andreescu, who came within two points of victory in a dramatic final set. “But at the same time, she played really, really well. She threw me off a lot with her heavy, spinny shots and her variety … I tried my best with what I had today, but Tamara just really, really played well.”
Andreescu was later followed out of the tournament by Garbiñe Muguruza, the 2016 champion and 12th seed, who lost 6-1, 6-4 to the Ukrainian teenager Marta Kostyuk. Muguruza, who took a medical timeout for what looked like a lower back problem, made 40 unforced errors as she made her earliest ever exit from the event.
Jelena Ostapenko, the 2017 champion, narrowly lost out to the fourth seed Sofia Kenin. The American, who won the Australian Open last year before reaching the final in Paris, edged home 6-4, 4-6, 6-3.
Serena Williams, meanwhile, survived a tough encounter against Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania in the first night session on Court Philippe Chatrier. Williams, seeded seventh and bidding for a fourth title in Paris, squandered a 5-2 lead in the first set and was forced to save two set points before closing out a 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 win.
“It wasn’t easy in that first set,” said Williams. “I was up and I felt like I had some opportunities and she played really well.”
Another Romanian, Mihaela Buzarnescu, awaits in round two as Williams continues her quest to equal Margaret Court’s record tally of 24 majors.