By Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Friday, May 31, 2024
Iga Swiatek celebrated her 23rd birthday sweeping Marie Bouzkova for her 15th straight clay-court to reach the RG fourth round.
Photo credit: Corleve/Mark Peterson
Sliding on the tension tight-rope doesn’t scare Iga Swiatek.
One round after Swiatek fought off a match point edging Naomi Osaka in a thriller, she showed no scar tissue restoring order with stinging celebration.
Badosa: Swiatek Cannot Complain
Observing her 23rd birthday in style, Swiatek pumped up the party pounding out a 6-4, 6-2 win over Marie Bouzkova to reach the Roland Garros fourth round for the sixth time in as many appearances.
It is Swiatek's 15th straight clay-court win and her 17th consecutive Roland Garros victory—that’s the longest women’s winning streak in Paris Justine Henin won 24 consecutive matches between 2005-2010.
Afterward, Swiatek celebrated with an energy paste before receiving a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" from French Open fans.
"But for sure I was waiting until after the match to feel that I have a birthday because I knew that I need to focus on my work because if I would lose, it would be a total disaster," Swiatek said. "So I'm happy that I won, and I kind of gave myself a present."
Teetering on the ledge of loss against the hard-hitting Osaka, who rushed her into forehand errors at times, Swiatek had more time to construct points against Bouzkova and she sure made the most of it.
The top-seeded Pole hit 34 winners against eight unforced errors. Sometimes forced to play off her back foot against four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka, Swiatek played more proactive tennis today winning 10 of 13 trips to net.
Swiatek raised her career clay-court record to 80-10, including a 17-1 record on red clay this season as she takes aim at a third consecutive Roland Garros crown and fourth French Open title overall.
Afterward, Swiatek said the day off helped her rest, recover and reset after an arduous test against Osaka that left her physically and emotionally drained.
"Honestly, I think this is the advantage of having one day off because sometimes it's harder to keep the routine or something, but this time actually it helped because yesterday I wasn't even practicing also because of the rain," Swiatek told the media in Paris. "So, yeah, I could reset, and I could also rest physically because this match was for sure demanding.
"I felt good today. Like, I can just proceed with having a solid tournament even though I was in trouble against Naomi for sure."
Continuing to ascend to rare air, Swiatek is now 31-2 lifetime at Roland Garros with only Hall of Fame legends Chris Evert and Monica Seles scoring their first 30 wins at the French Open in fewer matches (31 each).
Next up for Swiatek is a fourth-round showdown with Anastasia Potapova.
World No. 41 Potapova out-lasted Xinyu Wang 7-5, 6-7(6), 6-4 in a grueling duel that lasted two hours, 50 minutes.
Potapova converted seven of 23 break points to reach a Grand Slam round of 16 for the first time in 18 major appearances.
The 23-year-old Potapova, who is two months older than Swiatek, will face the world No. 1 for the first time.