Iga Swiatek sees off Sara Bejlek to reach third round at French Open

PARIS – To regain her status as the “Queen of Clay”, Iga Swiatek has to learn from someone who has worked with the “King of Clay”.

The Pole is reaping the benefits of teaming up with Rafael Nadal’s former coach, as she navigated her way into the third round of the French Open on Wednesday with a 6-2, 6-3 success over world No. 35 Sara Bejlek.

The four-time Roland Garros champion is seeking to reclaim the title she won three times consecutively between 2022 and 2024, before losing out at the semi-final stage to top seed Aryna Sabalenka last season.

Swiatek, 24, has recently teamed up with Francisco Roig – who guided Nadal to all 22 Grand Slams including his 14 Roland Garros titles – and has been preparing for the clay-court Slam at the Spanish great’s tennis academy in Mallorca.

“I spent a week in Mallorca, which is amazing, because starting the clay-court season there gave me a lot of energy and motivation,” Swiatek said on court.

“We speak the same language, and he asks me how I want to play. For sure we practise a little bit differently and I needed to adjust to that but, week by week, I can take more and more from Francis, that’s for sure.”

After a comfortable opening win in Paris against Australian wildcard Emerson Jones, the Pole faced a tougher challenge in the round of 64 against Abu Dhabi winner Bejlek.

“She has a tricky style of game... she mixes up the rhythm quite well,” Swiatek added of her 20-year-old opponent, who she played for the first time.

With a slight blustering wind creeping across centre court, which the sun-drenched spectators doubtless appreciated, both players struggled on serve initially with three consecutive breaks in the early exchanges.

Swiatek then looked to have firmly gained the upper hand from the baseline but Bejlek battled to stay with the former world No. 1 and saved a set point to break back to 5-2 – Swiatek finishing that game with back-to-back double faults.

But the diminutive Czech’s own service problems came back to bite her as Swiatek broke for the fourth time to claim the opener.

Swiatek held serve to claim a mammoth opening game in the second frame as both women found their range with their groundstrokes.

But Swiatek proved the more powerful of the two as she broke in the next game before moving through the rest of the set to book her last-32 berth, despite dropping serve two times.

There she will meet either fellow former French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko or compatriot Magda Linette.

Earlier, former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic became the first women’s player to reach the third round after the Swiss beat American Caty McNally 6-4, 6-0.

Bencic is competing in the French Open after a gap of two years, having missed the 2024 edition after giving birth to her daughter Bella and the 2025 edition with an arm injury.

With her comfortable victory, the 29-year-old reached the third round in Paris for the first time since 2022. AFP, REUTERS