Swiatek, Raducanu pull through Roland Garros openers; to meet in Round 2

For the second major in a row, Iga Swiatek and Emma Raducanu will meet in the first week.

No. 5 seed Iga Swiatek had to navigate a slightly trickier test than she is accustomed to in Grand Slam first rounds, coming from 3-1 down in the second set to open her Roland Garros title defense with a 6-3, 6-3 defeat of Rebecca Sramkova. Raducanu followed after overcoming Wang Xinyu 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in a 2-hour, 44-minute thriller on Court 8.

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In the third round of the Australian Open in January, Swiatek routed Raducanu 6-0, 6-1 in 1 hour and 10 minutes. The former World No. 1 has yet to drop a set to Raducanu in four meetings. However, their closest meetings have both come on clay, in the Stuttgart quarterfinals in 2022 and 2024. On those occasions, Swiatek came through 6-4, 6-4 and 7-6(2), 6-3 respectively.

"I didn't really think about [the Australian Open] match, honestly," Swiatek said after defeating Sramkova. "I was thinking about our Stuttgart match, and I think we played another time on clay after -- I'm not sure. I'm not good at that. But I don't really take a lot from that except the experience and ... knowing how she plays.

"But Melbourne and Roland Garros [are] totally different surfaces, different stories. I'll prepare tactically as I should before a clay court match, and that's it."

Raducanu, meanwhile, will enter the match with a nothing-to-lose attitude.

"It's a match for me where I can really test and challenge myself," she said. "Especially on clay, it's her preferred tournament, surface. She's won it, like, four times. It's a match where I can just ... go for my shots, because I know if I just push the ball, I'm probably going to get eaten."

Swiatek survives challenge from Sramkova

Sramkova was also a repeat opponent from Melbourne for Swiatek. In the second round of the Australian Open, Swiatek had needed just an hour to win 6-0, 6-2. In the rematch, No. 42-ranked Sramkova brought a higher level to the court, holding her own in high-octane baseline rallies and striking 23 winners, just two fewer than Swiatek's 25.

Blending power with touch on the drop shot and lob, Sramkova made the first half of both sets tightly contested -- but Swiatek asserted her authority when it mattered. At 3-3 in the first set, the former World No. 1 upped her aggression levels to pressure Sramkova with a series of winners, converting her third break point with a sweet backhand down the line. From 3-1 down in the second set, Swiatek took back control with a rapid-fire run through 10 consecutive points, and ultimately five straight games.

The result extended four-time champion Swiatek's winning streak at Roland Garros to 22, and her winning streak in WTA tournament opening matches to 60. Her last losses in both came to Maria Sakkari -- in the 2021 Roland Garros quarterfinals and 2021 WTA Finals Guadalajara round-robin respectively.

Raducanu takes control in home stretch

Raducanu's only previous meeting with Wang was also top quality. Back in 2021, two months after Raducanu's shock first major crown at the US Open, she fell 6-1, 6-7(0), 7-5 to the Chinese player in the second round of Linz. That contest featured sustained shot-making excellence from both for 2 hours and 36 minutes, and the pair picked up where they left off in the rematch.

The Raducanu forehand was on song from the start, netting her two clean winners en route to an immediate break of Wang's serve. That shot has been a focus of the World No. 41's training of late, in order to bring it to the same level as the backhand that has historically been her favored wing.

"It's just a good development of my game that has come in more recent times," she said. "I enjoy looking for it. I enjoy seeing how far at the center I can run around and how many backhands I can take as forehands. I think just in terms of angle, I have a lot more options when I look for a forehand on that middle ball.

"I'm happy with the way it's come across. It is developing into a weapon. ... Growing up, my backhand was always my stronger shot. I guess the main goal and main objective is to have the best of both worlds."

For most of the first set, the Briton kept her nose in front, but Wang remained hot on her heels, pegging her back from 5-3 to 5-5. However, Raducanu maintained her intensity on return to sweep through the final two games, despite needing to take a medical time-out leading 6-5.

"I think I'm actually really proud of today's match, more so than I think a lot of the matches that I played recently or in general, because I woke up and I felt really sick, to be honest," Raducanu told the press afterward. "I felt bad from the morning. I was just trying and fighting through that. It was really difficult. In the first set, I just felt it straightaway and it didn't really go away throughout the whole match. To have come through that and overcome how I was feeling, I'm really happy with ... it would have been easy to let it drag me down."

A pair of scorching backhands down the line enabled Wang to break for 3-1 in the second set, and she swiftly moved out to 5-1 as Raducanu's form -- and forehand -- took a downturn. But Raducanu responded to the heavy deficit with some of her most free-flowing ball-striking of the match -- and a three-game run to get back on serve.

Raducanu was unable to take four game points to level at 5-5, but she carried that momentum into the decider. She pummeled a forehand return for an immediate break, and delighted the crowd with a fine half-volley pickup en route to a 3-0 double-break lead. Down 5-2, Wang prevented Raducanu from serving out the win with some bold play of her own, but the gulf was too much to make up: facing her third match point, the 23-year-old double faulted to send Raducanu through.