Top-seeded and world’s number one Iga Swiatek (Poland) saved a match point to beat former world’s number one Naomi Osaka (Japan) by 2-1 (7:6, 1:6, 7:5) in a second-round match at the French Open / Roland Garros.
The match lasted a full three hours on the indoor court in Paris, and after Iga Swiatek won the tiebreak in the first set, it seemed that Naomi Osaka was totally dominating. The Japanese recorded two breaks and took the first four games of the second set, and in the seventh she made a third break for the final 6:1.
Naomi Osaka began the third set in similar fashion after breaking the serve of the top-seeded Iga Swiatek in the second game and defending her lead on her own serve for 3:0. The Polish tennis player reduced her deficit to 3:5, and in the ninth game she saved a match point in extra games and took the next break point.
This gave a big boost to Iga Swiatek’s play and she extended her streak to five straight games won to put the match point on the first match point in her favor and 7:5. This marked Iga Swiatek’s 16th straight win at the French Open, which she won in 2023 against Karolína Muchova (Czech Republic) and in 2022 against Cori Coco Gauff (USA).
Iga Swiatek’s next opponent will be Marie Bouzkova (Czech republic) or Jana Fett (Croatia), whose match was suspended at 1-0 (6:2, 1:0) due to rain.
Cori Coco Gauff (USA) also qualified for the next phase of the tournament after defeating Tamara Zidansek (Slovenia) by 2-0 (6:3, 6:4) in 92 minutes. She will play against the winner between Wang Yafan (China) and Dayana Yastremska (Ukraine).
Earlier in the day, Ons Jabeur (Tunisia) won by 2-1 (6:3, 1:6, 6:3) against Camila Osorio (Colombia). The 8th-seeded Tunisian player will face the winner of the match between Leylah Fernandez (Canada) and Wang Xiyu (China), which was also interrupted at 5:3 in the first set.
