Iga Swiatek’s season, especially after the Australian Open and the retirement of her winner and former number one, Ashleigh Barty, is simply impressive. The Pole went through her first difficulties at Roland Garros this Saturday, but still beat the Montenegrin Danka Kovinic (6-3 and 7-5 in 90 minutes) and chained 31 consecutive victoriesthe best streak in women’s tennis since 2013. On Monday she will face one of the revelations of the tournament, the 19-year-old Chinese debutant Qinwen Zheng, who after eliminating Simona Halep in the second round, advanced in the third due to the withdrawal of the French Cornet, when she won 6-0 and 3-0.
Swiatek had to face a relatively delicate situation in the second set from 4-1 in his favor, he went to 5-4 for his Kovinic, which ended up conceding a break that left her out of the game. The leader of the ranking makes everything easy, with some ordinary numbers in sight, but very balanced and she is in a sweet moment that seems to have no end.
Beware of the Iga data string. With this new triumph, he accumulates 40, more than those he harvested in all of 2021. She has won four WTA 1,000, something that Serena Williams only achieved before in 2013. She has five consecutive trophies and is chasing the second in Paris, to equal an achievement that three tennis players have starred in since 2000: Henin (4), Serena (3) and Sharapova (2). His winning percentage in the French Slam is 89.5%, behind those signed by Court (95.3%) and Evert (92.3%), and ahead of Graf (89.4%) in the Open Era (since 1968). She is also the first number one to have 13 or more wins after coming to the throne since Williams in 2015.
Sabalenka, another top-10 eliminated
The top-10 debacle at Roland Garros increased this Saturday with the eliminations of Paula Badosa, who retired due to injury when playing against Kudermetova, and Aryna Sabalenka. The number seven lost in three sets against the Italian Camila Giorgi, who beat the Belarusian in the last two sets: 4-6, 6-1 and 6-0 in 1h42. Sabalenka fails again in her attempt to reach the round of 16 in Paris, a goal that Giorgi achieves for the first time, who will meet the Russian Daria Kasatkina, who got rid of the American Shelby Rogers (6-3 and 6-2 in 79 minutes). Jessica Pegula (11th) beat the Slovenian Zidansek, semifinalist in 2021, 6-1 and 7-6 (2), and will face the Romanian Begu, who dropped the French revelation, Leolia Jeanjean (6-1 and 6-4) to the chagrin of the local fans who cheered her non-stop.