Swiatek cruises while other top players fall at Roland Garros

The inform Iga Swiatek continued her impressive run, but a couple of former world number one tennis players have been bundled out at the French Open in Paris.

Iga Swiatek
Photo: photosport

Swiatek demolished American Alison Riske 6-0 6-2 as she raced into the third round with her 30th consecutive victory, extending an awe-inspiring run that she knows might soon come to an end.

The world number one wasted no time on court Suzanne Lenglen, showing no mercy as she went close to dishing out the first ‘double bagel’ of this year’s tournament.

The Polish player, hot favourite to claim a second title at Roland Garros in three years, was virtually unchallenged by the world number 43 who could only manage seven points in the opening set.

Riske put up something of a fight in the second, letting out a big scream and raising her hand in celebration when she won her first game to reduce the arrears to 3-1.

Swiatek did not ease the pressure and wrapped it up in just over an hour when Riske’s backhand sailed long.

She is on the longest winning run since Serena Williams bagged 34 consecutive victories in 2013 – still a far cry, however, from Martina Navratilova’s all-time record of 74 from 1984.

Swiatek has also now won 44 of the last 45 sets she has played and is undefeated since losing to former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in Dubai in February, having won a set 6-0 on 15 occasions this year.

Next up for Swiatek is Danka Kovinic of Montenegro with the draw looking increasingly favourable for the Pole following early eliminations for holder Barbora Krejcikova, Tunisian sixth seed Ons Jabeur and Greek world number three Maria Sakkari.

Former world number one ranked players Karolina Pliskova and Simona Halep were both beaten in the second round.

Eighth seed Pliskova was demolished by French wildcard Leolia Jeanjean 6-2 6-2.

The 26-year-old Jeanjean is a former big hope of French tennis who ended up living on minimum wage after a knee injury suffered when she was 15 kept her off the courts for two years.

Dropped by Nike, who had given her a 10-year sponsorship deal, and by the French federation, who had assigned her a full-time coach when she was 12, Jeanjean went to study in the United States at the Lynn University in Florida.

She came back to tennis after five years in the U.S. only for her return to be slowed down by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jeanjean, whose early rise had drawn comparisons with Martina Hingis, will next face Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 30th seed, or Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu.

And Halep failed to deal with the aggressive game of Chinese teenager Zheng Qinwen and suffered a 2-6 6-2 6-1 second-round loss.

Halep, who lifted the trophy at Roland Garros in 2018 before winning Wimbledon the following year, came into the match on Court Simonne Mathieu having won her only prior meeting against the 19-year-old Zheng in straight sets in Melbourne in January.

The 30-year-old Romanian got off to a flying start by dominating play from the baseline, breezing through the opening set and going up a break before Zheng, ranked 74th in the world, took control.

Winners started flowing from the Chinese player’s racket as the unforced error count soared for Halep and Zheng did not look back.

Zheng, who hit 28 winners to her opponent’s nine, won eight games in a row to go up 3-0 in the deciding set and Halep won just one more game.

Zheng, playing only her second major after making her Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open, will next meet the winner of the match between local hope Alize Cornet and former champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.

-Reuters