Mumbai: Not too long ago, the women’s singles draw at the French Open was essentially a battle to see who would finish second. It was almost a certainty that Iga Swiatek would clinch the title.
That notion came crashing down last year when Swiatek, struggling with form, lost in the semi-final. Titles did follow at Wimbledon, the Cincinnati Masters and the WTA 500 event in Seoul, but the 24-year-old has not quite hit the same rhythm that saw her win 37 consecutive matches in 2022.
Swiatek is still not back to her best as the tennis tour returns to Roland Garros. But she has equipped herself with some important new additions to her coaching staff. In April, the four-time French Open champion began working with Francisco Roig – the veteran Spanish coach who helped Rafael Nadal win each of his 22 Grand Slam titles.
In the search to find her feet on clay once again, she even spent a brief stint at the Nadal Academy, hitting with the former world No.1, dubbed the King of Clay, who never lost his touch on the surface.
“I want to go back to solid foundations and feel like a wall on the court again – making no mistakes and forcing my opponents to make them,” Swiatek said in Polish to Sport.pl. “I’ve always had that. It was my advantage.”
Swiatek will begin her hunt for a seventh Slam as the third seed, but she has stiff competition in her own half of the draw.
She begins her campaign against Australian wild card Emerson Jones, but could face 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in the third round. A win there could set her up against Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk in the fourth round.
While Swiatek has struggled for form, Kostyuk has been the most decorated player in this season’s clay swing, with titles at the WTA 250 event in Rouen, France, followed by the Madrid Masters.
The win in Spain, though, came with a hip and ankle injury that forced her to withdraw from the Italian Open, which was won by world No.7 Elina Svitolina – who could be the quarter-final opponent for Swiatek or Kostyuk, should they reach that far.
Then comes the possible semi-final against reigning Australian Open champion and world No.2 Elena Rybakina.
The hard-hitting Kazakh has never been past the French Open quarter-final, but she is one of the few players to have won a clay court title this season, winning in Stuttgart. The two-time Grand Slam winner though also has a tricky route, as she could play the injury-plagued 2021 champion Barbora Krejcikova in the third round. The next step could be against former finalist Jasmine Paolini, who has been struggling for form so far this term.
In the other half of the draw are last year’s finalists, world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka and defending champion Coco Gauff.
The American won that error-prone final after coming from a set down to win 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-4. But since winning her second Grand Slam title, the 22-year-old has been inconsistent.
This year, she reached the final at the Miami Masters and ahead of the trip to Paris, played herself into some form by reaching the final in Rome. Now as she prepares to defend her title at the French Open, she hopes the new mindset she’s adopted helps her.
“I realise that the ‘defending’ means nothing in a way. I don’t really look at it as defending anymore,” she said during the Italian Open.
“At the (2024 US Open, where she was the defending champion but lost in the fourth round), I was like, ‘I need to defend, defend.’ That’s why I just say now it’s just another tournament: ‘I won it last year, I’ll try again to do it this year.’”
Her attempt at a successive French Open title begins, however, against the tricky Taylor Townsend. Should she get to the quarter-final though, she could face her old friend and doubles partner Jessica Pegula, the fifth seed. A win there could see the winner playing top seed Sabalenka.
Apart from Swiatek, Sabalenka is the only active women’s player to have successfully defended a Grand Slam title. The Belarusian won back-to-back Australian Open crowns in 2023 and 2024, and later clinched successive US Open titles in 2024 and 2025. Sabalenka however, has won all her Majors on hard courts.
The 28-year-old however, is also travelling to Paris without much form to boast on clay this year.
And while the big names haven’t yet hit top gear in the clay season, there are other challengers who cannot be taken lightly.
Kostyuk and Svitolina lead the way, while Amanda Anisimova has shown she is ready to strike in the biggest stages of the sport. The younger guard – teenagers Mirra Andreeva, Victoria Mboko and Iva Jovic – could also make waves.
A few years ago, Swiatek’s dominance provided some stability to the French Open title prospects. This year, it is anybody’s game.
