{"id":84544,"date":"2025-05-30T14:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T18:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=84544"},"modified":"2025-05-30T14:47:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T18:47:13","slug":"swiatek-avoids-ostapenko-rybakina-does-her-favor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/05\/30\/swiatek-avoids-ostapenko-rybakina-does-her-favor\/","title":{"rendered":"Iga Swiatek Avoids Ostapenko at French Open as Rybakina Does Her a Favor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The seventh chapter of the rivalry between Iga Swiatek and Jelena Ostapenko will have to wait. Many were already anticipating a blockbuster fourth-round clash between two former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rolandgarros.com\/en-us\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">French Open<\/a> champions, but that won&#8217;t happen. Ostapenko&#8217;s early exit means she&#8217;ll preserve her perfect 6-0 record against the former World No. 1.<\/p>\n<p>Considering Swiatek&#8217;s struggles in 2025\u2014disappointing results, shaky form\u2014it wouldn&#8217;t have been surprising if she had been the one to miss out. However, it was Ostapenko who faltered this time, unable to reach the much-anticipated showdown.<\/p>\n<h2>Rybakina Breaks Through<\/h2>\n<p>Standing in the way of the most anticipated match so far in the women&#8217;s draw was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/05\/24\/elena-rybakina-ends-title-drought-in-strasbourg\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Elena Rybakina<\/a>. The Kazakh, despite a difficult season, found form just in time by winning the Strasbourg title the week before Roland-Garros. She carried that momentum into Paris, reaching the second week with relative ease.<\/p>\n<p>Some may point to her shaky first-round match, where she dropped a set to qualifier Riera. Yet she quickly found rhythm, defeating youngster Jovic 6-3, 6-3, and then dominating Ostapenko with a double 6-2 win. While she enters her next match as the underdog against four-time French Open champion Swiatek, Rybakina has once again proven she&#8217;s not to be underestimated.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Zd6FRtPKQIVFgxriEcHRPQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2217106876\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Zd6FRtPKQIVFgxriEcHRPQ',sig:'tQSWNUyVh3NHAIgFrB8FRvU7DrykcN-JVplq0-DkA4o=',w:'594px',h:'333px',items:'2217106876',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Evenly Matched: Swiatek vs Rybakina<\/h3>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtatennis.com\/head-to-head\/324166\/326408\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">head-to-head<\/a> between Swiatek and Rybakina stands tied at 4-4. Importantly, Rybakina has already beaten Swiatek on clay twice\u2014once in Stuttgart and once in Rome, though the latter ended with a retirement from the Pole in the third set. This suggests a potentially close battle ahead.<\/p>\n<p>Swiatek remains undefeated in sets at this year&#8217;s French Open, but she&#8217;s no longer the untouchable force she was in 2022 and 2023. Still title-less in 2025, the newly 24-year-old is facing opponents who now step onto the court believing they have a real shot.<\/p>\n<h3>A Look at the Path Ahead<\/h3>\n<p>Both players find themselves in one of the toughest sections of the women&#8217;s draw. The winner of their match could face Italian Open champion <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/05\/28\/jasmine-paolini-french-open-third-round\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Jasmine Paolini<\/a> in the quarterfinals, and potentially World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka or Olympic gold medalist Qinwen Zheng in the semis. And that&#8217;s still not the final.<\/p>\n<p>To lift the trophy, Swiatek or Rybakina must survive a brutal series of matches, starting with their showdown, likely scheduled for Sunday on Court Philippe-Chatrier. One step at a time will be the only possible approach.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey &#8211; Imagn Images<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The seventh chapter of the rivalry between Iga Swiatek and Jelena Ostapenko will have to wait. Many were already anticipating a blockbuster fourth-round clash between two former French Open champions, but that won&#8217;t happen. Ostapenko&#8217;s early exit means she&#8217;ll preserve her perfect 6-0 record against the former World No. 1. Considering Swiatek&#8217;s struggles in 2025\u2014disappointing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5454,"featured_media":78607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,4],"tags":[5595,204,4315,473,42736,896,6457,364],"class_list":["post-84544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-french-open","category-wta","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-french-open","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-jelena-ostapenko","tag-news","tag-roland-garros","tag-tennis-news","tag-wta-tour"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5454"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84544"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84548,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84544\/revisions\/84548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}