PARIS, France — Emma Raducanu was outclassed in the second round of the French Open by Iga Swiatek as the reigning champion won 6-1, 6-2 on Wednesday at Roland Garros.
Raducanu, 22, was one of six Brits to make it through to the second round of this year’s French Open, but she was handed the toughest possible ask with a match against Swiatek. Swiatek has been the dominant force on clay and has won four of the last five Slams at Roland Garros.
Swiatek, who has five Grand Slams to her name overall having also taken the 2022 US Open, came into the tournament in mixed form by her incredibly high standards, but as always, she’s found a way to raise her game once at Roland Garros. It is a place where she’s suffered zero defeats since 2021 and now has 23 victories in a row to her name in this tournament.
For Raducanu, this was always going to be a tough match. She came through her first round match against Wang Xinyu 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 but all the while she was battling pain and illness. She suffered a back spasm at the Strasburg Open last week, and woke on the morning of her opening match with sickness.
Raducanu, the 2021 US Open champion, had never beaten Swiatek, 23, before today’s clash, having lost all four of their previous meetings. The last time the two met it was a dominant win for Swiatek, as she eased through their Australian Open third round meeting earlier this year 6-1, 6-0.
Swiatek replicated that first set score this time around as she saved a first game break point and then took control of the match. She broke Raducanu twice en route to taking the first set 6-1 in just 35 minutes with Raducanu finding it hard to get her forehand on point.
Swiatek’s dominance showed no signs of abating in the early throes of the second set, as she broke Raducanu’s serve to love in the third game. Raducanu forced three break points in the fourth game but failed to capitalise on any of them as Swiatek went 3-1 up. Raducanu then saved a break point in fifth but failed to get a hold of Swiatek’s serve as the reigning champion held to love to go 4-2 up. Swiatek then broke Raducanu’s serve again in the seventh game, and served out to go through in 1 hour 19 minutes.
Swiatek will now face the winner of Sara Bejlek-Jaqueline Cristian in the third round on Friday.
