Problem-solving carries Swiatek past Bejlek and into the third round of Paris

PARIS -- On paper, this had all the markings of a straightforward second-round assignment for Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros.

And eventually, the scoreboard got there too.

Swiatek moved into the third round Wednesday with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Sara Bejlek in a match that never truly felt in danger -- though it spent long stretches pretending otherwise.

The first set alone lasted 46 minutes. The No. 3-seeded Swiatek was broken twice. She landed just 37 percent of her first serves.

In the second set, the opening game dragged close to 10 minutes by itself, and by the time Swiatek finally held for 1-0, the pair had already crossed the one-hour mark.

In the end, though, Swiatek still found more than enough answers. It was hardly spotless -- she finished with 38 unforced errors against 17 winners -- but she also broke the No. 35-ranked Bejlek seven times and won eight of 11 points at the net in the 1-hour, 31-minute victory.

"It was a tricky match in terms of the rhythm, because Sara plays differently than most of the players," Swiatek said afterward. "But I'm happy with the way I adjusted and how I was making decisions, because sometimes, yeah, it was not so obvious when to go and attack and stay back.

"But at the end I felt it pretty good."

Swiatek has now reached the third round at all 24 Grand Slam events played this decade. In the Open Era, only Novak Djokovic produced a longer streak to start a decade, reaching the third round at the first 25 majors of the 2010s.

A few more takeaways from Swiatek’s afternoon in Paris:

•  Swiatek is now 27-0 against unseeded opponents at Roland Garros. In the Open Era, only Rafael Nadal and Bjorn Borg faced more unseeded players in Paris without suffering a loss.
• She also became just the ninth woman in the Open Era to reach the third round in each of her first eight main-draw appearances at Roland Garros, joining names such as Chris Evert, Monica Seles and Serena Williams.
• And with her 42nd career win at Roland Garros, Swiatek matched Evert for the most women’s singles victories in Paris through a player’s first 45 main-draw matches of the Open Era.

Swiatek later pointed to Bejlek’s defense and unpredictability as major reasons the match never fully settled into rhythm. Bejlek mixed pace and spin effectively, forcing Swiatek to generate much of the offense herself -- a dynamic that often comes with higher risk.

“She was pretty good in defense, and I had many opportunities to attack,” Swiatek said. “So when you attack, you're going to make more mistakes, because it's easier to push the ball back than to actually add a lot of energy to it and try to open the court.”

Swiatek also said Bejlek’s ball-striking patterns were difficult to read at times, particularly because similar swings often produced entirely different shots.

“Sometimes from the same shots she was really playing flat, and sometimes totally opposite,” Swiatek said. “Pretty unpredictable, I would say.”

But the intrigue around Swiatek’s section of the draw shifted later Wednesday when Magda Linette defeated Jelena Ostapenko 6-2, 2-6, 6-2. 

That result removes the possibility of a third-round meeting with Ostapenko, who remains 6-0 lifetime against Swiatek on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, including a clay-court win in Stuttgart last season.

Linette, however, brings her own complications.

The two Polish players split their previous meetings. Swiatek dominated their first encounter in Beijing three years ago, 6-1, 6-1, but Linette earned a three-set victory earlier this season in Miami.