Holder Swiatek faces tough challenge to French Open dominance
BERLIN, May 23 (Reuters) - Four-times French Open champion Iga Swiatek will face a serious challenge to her dominance of the tournament this month, with the former world number one going to Paris on the back of a disappointing season so far.
Poland's Swiatek, who has dropped to fifth in the world rankings, has so far failed to win a title this year despite a few deep runs in tournaments, including the Australian Open semi-finals.
The 23-year-old has already lost nine matches this season - as many as in all of 2024 - while she has not reached a claycourt final ahead of her bid to retain the French Open.
A one-month doping ban late last year may have played its part with Swiatek having tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine in August 2024.
She returned to action in October after the International Tennis Integrity Agency accepted the explanation that Swiatek's positive test was caused by contamination of her sleep medication melatonin.
Winner of the last three French Open crowns, Swiatek has been lacking the punching power and precision that have seen her claim five Grand Slam titles and she has failed to make any mark on clay this year ahead of Paris.
A semi-final spot in Madrid was her best showing before an early exit in Rome added to her season's troubles earlier in May.
But Swiatek has been more effective on the Paris clay than any female player of the past two decades and her early arrival in the French capital last week, more than 10 days before the tournament starts, showed she is serious about retaining her title and getting her season back on track.
It will not be easy though with world number one Aryna Sabalenka the most consistent of all the top players with three titles so far this season and another three finals.
Sabalenka has never reached the final in Paris, with the Belarusian's power game more suited to faster surfaces, but her title win on clay in Madrid set her up nicely for Paris.
A one-time semi-finalist at Roland Garros, Sabalenka will hope to go at least one better with Swiatek struggling for form.
American Coco Gauff, a losing French Open finalist to Swiatek in 2022 who has made at least the quarter-finals each year since 2021, also has high hopes, having reached the final in Rome in a solid run-up to the tournament.
She lost to Italy's Jasmine Paolini, who also beat her in Stuttgart, having been beaten by Sabalenka in the Madrid final.
Paolini, beaten by Swiatek in last year's French Open final, earned a stunning victory in Rome - the first Italian woman to win the title there in 40 years - sending out a warning to other contenders in Paris.
Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva was a surprise semi-finalist last year but this time round few would bet against the 18-year-old Russian going further in the tournament.
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