With multiple Top 10 players including the defending champion already knocked out in the earlier rounds of the French Open, it’s no surprise that Iga Swiatek remains highly favoured by the French Open 2022 odds given her monster win streak.
Elsewhere, Simona Halep was brought back to Earth after experiencing an upturn in form in these past few weeks, and she’ll look to recharge her batteries for the next few tournaments.
At the same time, we’ll also highlight two youngsters who have raised eyebrows in this competition following their victories against their veteran counterparts.
Check out the latest French Open 2022 updates here at SBOTOP.
Iga Swiatek stays in the zone
Make it 30 in a row for the World No. 1 as she’s through to the third round after beating Alison Riske, 6-0, 6-2 last Thursday. It was also the 100th WTA victory of her young career.
Iga Swiatek only dropped two games against her American opponent and she has now won 46 of the last 47 sets she’s played.
She already held the fourth-longest women’s winning streak since 2000, and now she joins Justine Henin and the Williams sisters as the only women to win 30 or more in a row in the last two decades.
The Pole hit 23 winners to 15 unforced errors in the match that lasted over an hour and she lost just 10 points in seven service games. Riske did save three break points in the 10th game of the match to finally get on the board, but simply put, she was no match for the World No. 1.
“I’m going to reach a point where I’m going to lose a match, and it’s pretty normal. For sure it’s not fun to lose, but I think it wouldn’t be different than any other loss that I had in my career,” Swiatek said when asked about her 30-match win streak.
Swiatek is set to face Danka Kovinic, who’s coming from a victory against Anna Karolina Schmiedlova and an upset over World No. 25 Liudmila Samsonova in Round 1. This will be the second time since the Australian Open earlier this year that the World No. 95 will reach the third round.
Simona Halep suffers panic attack after shock loss
Simona Halep was poised to advance to the third round after winning the first set, but Qinwen Zheng recovered to get the second set and never looked back from there en route to a 6-2, 2-6, 1-6 result.
Throughout the match, Halep was having a difficult time breathing and she called on her trainer twice in the final set. After the match, the Romanian described her malaise.
“A little panic attack, let’s say. It’s new and I didn’t know how to handle it. It was tough to breathe and I was not very clear in what I’m doing. It was a very difficult moment,” bared Halep.
Earlier this season, Halep shared that she was close to retiring from the game of tennis because of the physical and mental toll that wore on her especially in these past two years.
Halep has partnered with Patrick Mouratoglou and credited him for “bringing that fire back”. However, she was critical of her performance after the loss and she vows to come back stronger.
“I can understand why the panic attack happened because I had two tough years with injuries and a lot of pressure with the pandemic and stuff,” said Halep.
“So probably today I just broke down a little bit. My brain was not very strong. But now I’m good, and that’s why I’m smiling,” she added.
Qinwen Zheng will play in the third round of a Grand Slam for the first time in her young career and she’ll square off against Alize Cornet next. If she wins, the World No. 74 could then face Iga Swiatek in the fourth round.
Coco Gauff and Leylah Fernandez advance to the fourth round
Leylah Fernandez will make the fourth round of the French Open for the first time ever while Coco Gauff has reached the last 16 of this competition for the second year running.
The former US Open finalist defeated Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 on Friday in what was a fun see-saw battle that lasted nearly three hours. Fernandez will be facing World No. 27 Amanda Anisimova next.
In stark contrast, Coco Gauff avoided an upset against Kaia Kanepi, 6-3, 6-4, in a match that last around 83 minutes. The young American is slated to take on World No. 31 Elise Mertens.
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