Iga Swiatek bulldozes on despite historic WTA seeding slaughter
Iga Swiatek has reached the third round of Roland Garros with an almost identical scoreline to her first round rout, in stark contrast to how the other top 10 seeds of the women’s draw are doing.
The world number one has now won 30 matches in a row as she ousted 43rd ranked American Alison Riske 6-0, 6-2, a mirror image of her 6-2, 6-0 result over Lesia Tsurenko in her opening round match.
Earlier, eighth seed Karolina Pliskova joined other top 10 seeds Barbora Krejcikova, Maria Sakkari, Anett Kontaveit, Ons Jabeur and Garbine Muguruza in exiting before the third round.
6/10 – For the first time in the history of the tournament 6+ amongst the 10 top-seeded female players have been eliminated in the first two Rounds at the #RolandGarros (6/10 now – Krejcikova, Sakkari, Kontaveit, Jabeur, Pliskova and Muguruza). Surprises.@WTA @WTA_insider pic.twitter.com/BFGc1RZUQY
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) May 26, 2022
With her 30th consecutive victory, Swiatek is emulating the kind of level exhibited by an early legend of the sport.
She said in her post-match interview: “This was my first singles match on [Court] Suzanne-Lenglen.
“So it was a pleasure playing here, thank you for cheering.”
The court’s namesake, Suzanne Lenglen of France, won Roland Garros six times in seven years from 1920 to 1926, before it was even known as Roland Garros.
Though some may see Swiatek as now operating at near perfection, the 20-year-old Pole is not so sure.
Fabrice Santoro continued the on-court interview by asking Swiatek what she will work on in practice before her next match.
She replied: “I’ll work on everything being I’m a perfectionist and I feel like there is always something I can do better.”
The Pole will take on Danka Kovinic of Montenegro next for a spot in the fourth round.
88.9% – Iga #Swiatek has won 16 of her 18 matches at the #RolandGarros , 89% winning percentage: only Margaret Court (95%), Chris Evert (92%) and Steffi Graf (90%) have a highest ratio in the history of this tournament in the Open Era. Terrific.@WTA @WTA_insider @rolandgarros pic.twitter.com/d7vHW0sic9
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) May 26, 2022
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