There are not many times in tennis when four-time grand slam singles champions face each other in the second round. However, that is what we saw on Wednesday when Iga Swiatek of Poland faced Naomi Osaka of Japan. Swiatek previously won the 2020 French Open, the 2022 French Open, the 2022 United States Open and the 2023 French Open. Osaka won the 2018 United States Open, the 2019 Australian Open, the 2020 United States Open, and 2021 Australian Open.
First, you may wonder why Osaka was unseeded when she is one of the best women’s tennis players in the game. Well, it is because she took time off because of the birth of her daughter Shai, who was born last July. As a result, she is now 134th in the WTA rankings.
The level of play on Wednesday at Philippe Chartier Court was extraordinary. There were several shifts in momentum before Swiatek pulled out a dramatic 7-6, 1-6, 7-5 win. It was a match that Swiatek won the final five games of the third set after being down 5-2. The best word to describe Swiatek’s performance was resilient.
Osaka made some key mistakes herself down the stretch. While serving, she had a match point opportunity in the third set, but her backhand went into the net. Then a double fault in the 11th game put Swiatek in control at 6-5.
It was one of these matches where all the statistics were in the loser’s favour except for the most meaningful statistic of them all, the score. Swiatek simply won the right points at the right time in the first and third sets.
Swiatek will next face Marie Bouzkova of the Czech Republic in the third round of the French Open. This will be their first meeting head to head.
For FREE!
