By Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Saturday, July 27, 2024
Four-time Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek and French Open finalist Jasmine Paolini each advanced to the Paris Olympics second round beneath closed roofs.
Photo credit: Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP/Getty
Challenged in the second set, Iga Swiatek sustained her Roland Garros roll today.
World No. 1 Swiatek reeled off the final four games defeating Romanian Irina-Camelia Begu 6-2, 7-5 in her Paris Olympics opener on Court Philippe Chatrier.
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It is Swiatek's 22nd consecutive victory on the red clay of Roland Garros and comes a little more than a month and a half after Swiatek swept maiden major finalist Jasmine Paolini rolling to a Roland Garros championship three-peat with a stylish 6-2, 6-1 thrashing last month.
Competing for her first Olympic gold medal, the top-seeded Swiatek will play either Argentian Nadia Podoroska or Frenchwoman Diane Parry in round two.
Rain in Paris throughout the day on Saturday required officials to close the retractable roofs over Roland Garros' stadium courts.
On nearby Court Suzanne Lenglen, Wimbledon finalist Paolini dispatched Romanian Ana Bogdan 7-5, 6-3.
In her first match since bowing to Barbora Krejcikova 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 in the Wimbledon final two weeks ago, Paolini found her forehand in her return to red clay.
Paolini pounded down a series of forehand strikes down the line, improving her 2024 record to 31-13.
The fourth-seeded Paolini is into the Olympic second-round for the first time where she will face either Poland's Magda Linette, who won the Prague title yesterday, or 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva, who collected her first WTA Tour-level title in the Iasi final on Saturday. Andreeva became the youngest woman since Coco Gauff in 2021 to win a WTA title.