Swiatek’s aura on Chatrier impresses Clijsters

Despite Swiatek having slipped outside the top four for the first time since February 2022, on the eve of opening her title defence in Paris, Clijsters feels the 24-year-old’s legacy at Roland-Garros already gives her a leg up.

“She’s very impressive to watch, and the thing is here when you've won here so many times – what is it four times – there's a different pressure every time,” Clijsters said. “You'd be happy with one or you could say, ‘okay well I have won four times, I want to win it again’.

“She's the favourite so that adds a little different energy to your team and yourself, but as you get older as a tennis player you also become more mature, learn to deal with those feelings and emotions, so yeah, I think if she can stick to her game and if she can take it one point at a time, I think she's going to be very hard to beat here again.”

Swiatek’s longest title drought since her first trophy at Roland-Garros in 2020 was guaranteed to reach a year following her earlier than expected departure in Rome leading in.

But Clijsters sees no great cause for alarm. The 24-year-old’s recent dip, she said, is a perfectly normal experience for any player.

“Every player goes through struggles, goes through different emotions and that's life,” she said. “It's life off the court, and it's life on the court. That's part of the sport and what she's been able to do in her career so far is nothing but amazing.

“She has still so many years left and I'm excited to see what she can do in the future … You just have to try to be good enough on the day and she has the experience to do it here. It’s great to see the confidence that she has when she walks out on the court here on Philippe-Chatrier.”

Three-time former Roland-Garros champion Mats Wilander said Swiatek’s fourth round great escape from a set and a break down for a 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 win against in-form fellow major winner Elena Rybakina could be the turning point of her campaign.

Only a year ago, Swiatek saved a match point against Naomi Osaka in the second round and went all the way to the trophy.

“It could easily have gone 6-1, 6-1 so I would think she feels like it’s close to saving match points and then it got really close in the end and she nearly had to save match points so I think it's huge,” Wilander told rolandgarros.com. “Iga slowed things down, which is what she has to do, I think. If she does that then suddenly you have a problem to beat her.”

Swiatek backed up her win to deny Elina Svitolina, which set only her second Grand Slam showdown – and first in Paris – against world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka.

Wilander said it was a rivalry that history has already showed is at its peak on the terre battue.

“On a clay court, I think it's a great rivalry,” Wilander said. On a fast hard court then suddenly we're talking about Aryna most probably. Here we're talking about Iga for sure because they're well matched, maybe not on paper at the moment, but when it comes to getting out on the court and trying to beat Iga on Philippe-Chatrier then suddenly you're talking about a completely different situation.”

Former US Open champion Flavia Pennetta agrees that Swiatek’s turnaround against Rybakina could prove pivotal ahead of her last-four clash with Sabalenka.

No woman has claimed the Coupe Suzanne-Lenglen four times in a row in the Open era and while Swiatek has not cast a thought beyond her high-profile semi-final, Pennetta has noticed a visible change for the better in the 24-year-old’s on-court body language.

“I think it's going to be interesting to see how she can handle all the perspective. She didn't have a really good year like the year before but her match (against Rybakina), I think, gives her a lot of confidence and gives her good feelings because in the last months she didn't have them.

“Also, the face that she had was a little bit unhappy, but against (Rybakina) I saw her face and she was a tiger on the court.”

Back in Swiatek’s most successful arena, the tiger inside has re-emerged. Sabalenka never doubted it would.

“I’m always excited to face someone strong and then someone who can challenge me,” she said. “I love it, because I take it as a challenge.”