Before the start of Roland Garros Iga Świątek fell to fifth place in the WTA ranking, the lowest in over three years. This is the result of the fact that she did not defend 2000 points won a year ago in Madrid and Rome. In the Spanish capital, she fell out in the semi -final, and in Italy in the third round, which was a sensation.
Świątek is not the favorite of Roland Garros
Defending the title at Roland Garros' courts this year will probably be the most difficult in the entire career of Świątek. She noted a decrease in the ranking, is in a worse form, at almost every tournament this season she fell off after a very poor match. The final is missing since last year's RG. In addition, the doping case, which affected the player's psyche, as well as the death of her grandfather, whom she survived. Świątek has a difficult, crisis period behind him. This is why The Associated Press did not put a Polish woman in the group of the main contenders to win RG.
The agency indicated three other tennis players – Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Jasmine Paolini. The Belarusian is the leader of the ranking and winner of the Madrid tournament. The Italian won the competition in Rome, while the American is a finalist of both events.
See also: WTA announces on Iga Świątek in Roland Garros. “Urgent matters to be dealt with”
Before the tournament, Madison Keys stated, cited by Canadian portal castanet.netthat “there are 20 different players who would not be a surprise in the tournament. There is no Serena Williams in every draw, where you just assume that he will win.” The portal believes that a similar status in recent years before the Grand Slam tournament in Paris had Christmas, but this year it lost it.
“She kept this status for some time, but from last year's triumph in Paris she went through a difficult period. Not only that she has not raised any trophy from that time, it has not yet reached the finals – and even the earth courts create her problems” – we read.
On Thursday there was a draw of a tournament ladder. In the first round of Świątek he will play with Slovak Rebecca Sramkova. The Polish woman has a fairly difficult path to the final triumph. In the second round he can play with Emma Raducan, in the third with Marta Kostiuk at his good disposal, and in the fourth he can find someone from three Jelena Rybakina/Jelena Ostapenko/Belinda Benć. In the quarterfinals, Paolini could wait for her, in the Sabalenka semi -final, and in the finale of Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Madison Keys or Mirrra Andrejew.
Roland Garros will start on Sunday, May 25 and will last until June 8.