Iga Swiatek has been dominant at the Roland Garros in the past few years, and her return to those courts for the 2024 Paris Olympics saw her win once again.
It doesn't matter if it's the French Open or the Olympics, the Pole knows how to play on the clay in Paris. She has a 35-2 career record in that tennis complex, and at the Olympic Games in Paris, she added yet another win.
It wasn't an easy draw for the Polish player, as she faced Irina-Camelia Begu, who is a very solid player, albeit one who didn't play many matches this year. Factors like that matter a lot because tennis is so rhythm-based.
That's what makes Swiatek so dangerous on clay because she seemingly just eases into it. Despite not having played on the surface for a while, she immediately picked up where she left off.
Begu found early break points in this match, as the World No. 1 showed a bit of nerves. Neither was hitting that well to start, so the top seed got an early break. Begu was able to break back largely thanks to Swiatek missing quite a bit.
Making eight unforced errors in the first three games was just too much. Starting well was very important for the top seed because Begu had the potential to be a very tricky matchup for her.
It ended up being so at the start, but largely because she could not really keep the ball in play. Neither was able to keep it in play too much because Swiatek had 12 unforced errors while Begu had 9, and that was only after five games.
In the ensuing chaos under the roof on the Court Philippe-Chatrier, Swiatek was expected to be the calmer player, and she was because she was able to break again, taking a 4-2 lead in the opening set.
Slowly but surely, the Polish player was able to overcome her opponent despite the shaky start. What helped her was the fact that neither was hitting well, but Swiatek was risking more, and it paid off.
She confirmed the break, taking a 5-2 lead and surviving that early chaotic period as hugely important to her. Not allowing her opponent to find any kind of rhythm also mattered, and after she was able to find herself a little bit, Swiatek largely didn't face any problems moving forward, winning the opening set 6-2.
The stat lines still didn't look too pretty as Swiatek made 17 unforced errors for Swiatek while her opponent missed the court 12 times, but the Pole had many more winners, which is what won her the opening set.
Both played a lot better in the second set, which was expected after the nervous opening set. Swiatek in particular, looked quite comfortable, but getting the lead took a bit of work as Begu was fighting.
Some spotty hitting cost her the serve, and Begu took a 4-3 lead after three unforced errors by Swiatek. When it mattered the most, the World No. 1 player found her best level and broke back to make it 5-5.
She was then able to break her opponent's serve once again and win the match 6-2, 7-5 to reach the second round of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
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