ROLAND GARROS — Iga Swiatek will look to shrug off the lingering concerns around her fitness on Tuesday with a straightforward victory over Cristina Bucsa.
Swiatek’s last outing in Rome ended with her retiring due to a thigh injury from which she admitted she was “still recovering” in her pre-tournament press conference.
That was on Friday though and the schedule has been built such that she will not be on court until around 2.15pm UK time on Tuesday, by which time she will have had a total of 13 days since her last match in which to regain full fitness.
But Swiatek actually says there were advantages to having some enforced time off from tennis in order to let her body recover.
“It’s not easy getting injured and having no kind of time to… like having it in the back of your mind that you have a tournament next week,” Swiatek said.
“But on the other hand I’m pretty happy that I have these extra few more days off because for sure I needed time to reset.
“Since the beginning of Stuttgart I was in a constant – I was just doing everything to, you know, play matches the best way, and that was the only thing I focused on.
“Having this time to reset and think about other stuff and just, you know, calm down for a couple of days was really helpful.
“And to also analyse what happened during the whole clay season. It’s a nice way to kind of going to the last tournament of the clay season with all the knowledge that I gained.
“I’m trying to take positives from that situation. So I feel like I have more time for sure than last year after Rome. I can more calmly prepare to Roland Garros.”
The top seed and defending champion could not have asked for a better opponent either: Bucsa does not have the relative form advantage of having come through qualifying (there is always a danger of playing someone on a three-match hot streak), and last time they met at the Australian Open earlier this year, Swiatek won 6-0 6-1.
Her draw will get harder, especially if her slated semi-final opponent and Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina gets off the mark fast at around 1.30pm.
The Kazakh No 4 seed faces highly rated 16-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova, who is playing the main draw of the French Open for the first time. A former winner of the prestigious “Petits As” junior singles event, Fruhvirtova is now part of the Patrick Mouratglou stable, where she and her sister Linda (who lost on Monday to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova) have trained since 2017.
One to watch
(All times BST)
Another who has Serena Williams’s former coach in his corner is Holger Rune, the Dane whose run to the quarter-finals here last year was a breakthrough moment. Now ranked No 6 in the world, he appears to have landed in an open section of the draw and thinks he is well-placed to peak at the right time against American Christopher Eubanks in the first round. They are third on Simonne Mathieu, so may not start until 1.45pm or perhaps a little later.
“I try to play my best tennis here and everything I’ve done throughout the season is really to be as ready as possible for this tournament,” Rune said.
“I feel in great shape. I feel like I’ve been closer to playing my best tennis and hopefully I can play my best tennis here.”
Upset-watch
The obvious place to look here is at US Open champion Bianca Andreescu up against Victoria Azarenka, the No 18 seed, at around 3.30pm, last on Simonne Mathieu.
The only stumbling block in picking Andreescu to spring an upset (well maybe not the only one – she lost 6-0 6-1 last time out) is that she has barely seen a clay court in her life, with fewer than 25 tour-level matches on the surface under her belt.
It’s a rogue shout but it would definitely be an upset. Also watch out for Rebeka Masarova against a hot-and-cold 2022 finalist Coco Gauff.
Brits abroad
Ah well. No singles today, with the last remaining representative Cameron Norrie playing Lucas Pouille on Wednesday.
Jamie Murray (with Michael Venus), Neal Skupski (with Wes Koolhof) and Lloyd Glasspool (with Harri Heliovaara) are all in men’s doubles action.
Tuesday’s order of play
(All courts start at 10am BST unless otherwise stated)
Court Philippe Chatrier
- Lucia Bronzetti vs Ons Jabeur (7)
- Thiago Seyboth Wild vs Daniil Medvedev (2)
- Iga Swiatek (1) vs Cristina Bucsa
- (Not before 7.15pm) Gael Monfils vs Sebastian Baez
Court Suzanne Lenglen
- Elias Ymer vs Casper Ruud (4)
- Rebeka Masarova vs Coco Gauff (6)
- Elena Rybakina (4) vs Brenda Fruhvirtova
- Richard Gasquet vs Arthur Rinderknech
Court Simonne Mathieu
- Anhelina Kalinina (25) vs Diane Parry
- Alexander Zverev (22) vs Lloyd Harris
- Holger Rune (6) vs Christopher Eubanks
- Victoria Azarenka (18) vs Bianca Andreescu
Court 14
- Rebecca Peterson vs Fiona Ferro
- Hugo Gaston vs Alex Molcan
- Clara Burel vs Sara Sorribes Tormo
- Michael Mmoh vs Taylor Fritz (9)
Court 7
- Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard vs Genaro Alberto Olivieri
- Lesia Tsurenko vs Barbora Krejcikova (13)
- Quentin Halys vs Guido Pella
- Erika Andreeva vs Emma Navarro
Court 6
- Tommy Paul (16) vs Dominic Stricker
- Selena Janicijevic vs Oceane Dodin
- Emil Ruusuvuori vs Gregoire Barrere
- Petra Martic vs Shelby Rogers (32)
Court 8
- Andrea Vavassori vs Miomir Kecmanovic (31)
- Zhu Lin vs Lauren Davis
- Thiago Monteiro vs Yannick Hanfmann
Court 9
- Yoshihito Nishioka (27) vs JJ Wolf
Court 10
- Mirra Andreeva vs Alison Riske
- Olga Danilovic vs Kateryna Baindl
Court 11
- Xinyu Wang vs Marie Bouzkova (31)
- Alexander Bublik vs Giulio Zeppieri
Court 12
- Max Purcell vs Jordan Thompson
- Arantxa Rus vs Julia Grabher
- Francisco Cerundolo (23) vs Jaume Munar
- Ylena In-Albon vs Claire Liu
Court 13
- Nicolas Jarry vs Hugo Dellien
- Linda Noskova vs Danka Kovinic
- Sorana Cirstea (30) vs Jasmine Paolini
- Timofey Skatov vs Grigor Dimitrov (28)
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