While in 2022 Iga Swiatek swept the clay season en route to the Roland Garros title, she came into this edition with far more question marks around her. She didn’t win Madrid or Rome (where she retired injured) and she’s been struggling against both Sabalenka and Rybakina all season. There very very legimate questions regarding whether she’d be able to mount a successful defense of her Roland Garros title but so far she’s been answering them and passing every test with flying colors.
On her way to the quarterfinals, she’s dropped only nine games in four matches, with a total of four bagels. It has an unbelievably dominant performance so far, even if the opposition hasn’t been that stern. In the quarters, a rematch of last year’s final against Coco Gauff awaits Swiatek and she’s a clear favorite to make it through again; in six matches against Gauff, she’s won all six, never dropped a set and only being taken to a tiebreak once. In last year’s Roland Garros final, she dropped only four games. It’s one of the most one-sided head-to-heads between top level players in WTA history and given Swiatek’s current form there’s every reason to believe it will remain like that.
The tournament seems to be building up to a final between Swiatek and Sabalenka, who’s the first real challenger to Swiatek’s #1 ranking in a very long time. In fact, Swiatek needs to outperform Sabalenka in order to retain her #1 position. A finals meeting between the pair would have #1 up for grabs. They faced twice so far this clay season, in the finals of Stuttgart and Madrid, with Swiatek winning in Stuttgart and Sabalenka in Madrid. Should they meet on Saturday, Iga Swiatek will go in as the favorite but it will be a key match for the future of the WTA, with the winner likely asserting herself as the dominant force on Tour.
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