Aryna Sabalenka expecting another ‘great battle’ with Iga Swiatek at French Open
Sign up now: Get the biggest sports news in your inbox
Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka celebrates after winning her French Open quarter-final match against China's Zheng Qinwen.
PHOTO: REUTERS
PARIS – World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka said on June 3 she was expecting another “great battle” with Iga Swiatek when the rivals meet in the French Open semi-finals.
Top seed Sabalenka dispatched Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 in the quarter-finals in Paris and next plays three-time defending champion Swiatek for a place in the final.
Swiatek, the fifth seed, got past 13th-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-1, 7-5 to set up the mouth-watering matchup on June 5.
The semi-final will be one between two players who know each other well, the pair having faced each other across the net 12 times with Swiatek leading the series 8-4. On clay, the Polish player has won five of their six meetings – most recently in the 2024 finals in Rome and Madrid.
Sabalenka’s only win on clay was in the final in Madrid in 2023, when she edged out Swiatek in three sets. And the Belarusian won their most recent clash – a straight-set win on hard court in Cincinnati in August 2024.
The 27-year-old says she enjoys the rivalry with 24-year-old Swiatek, and the pair who have shared the world No. 1 ranking between them for over three years have become closer of late.
“Yeah, I mean, before it wasn’t any communication, any practices with her, but now we are getting better,” said Sabalenka.
“We get along better, and we practise more often, and we know each other quite well. We’ve had a lot of great battles in the past.
“If it’s going to be Iga, I’m super excited and it’s high-level matches. Yeah, I’m super excited to go out there and to fight and to do everything I need to get the win.”
Swiatek revealed she has been practising with Sabalenka in the past two weeks. She said: “It’s great always to practise with Aryna. She gives a great rhythm and the practice will have quality, you know, so it was great. I feel like we both know how we play, so it’s not like you’re going to find something extraordinary there.”
On June 3, Sabalenka fought back after struggling in the first set against Zheng, who had beaten her in the last eight on clay in Rome in May.
She then converted her first match point on a poorly controlled drop shot from the Chinese to advance to her 11th Grand Slam semi-final overall, and her second in Paris following her run in 2023.
A three-time Grand Slam winner – at the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024 and the reigning US Open champion – Sabalenka is chasing her sixth Major final berth.
Zheng – on a 10-match winning run at Roland Garros since her Olympic gold in Paris – blamed nervousness for her errors in her first French Open quarter-final.
“In the first set I made a lot of, you know, easy mistakes. I give her the chance so easy,” she said.
“I (was) really tight because I have so much hunger in (the) French Open, and then I think this can make my performance not (the) best. I don’t even perform at 60, 70 per cent.” AFP