Iga Swiatek survives battle with Naomi Osaka, wins thrilling second round at Roland Garros

Iga Swiatek won what many will call the match of the tournament on Wednesday, holding off an impressive challenge from Naomi Osaka to win, 7-6 (1), 1-6, 7-5 to reach the third round of Roland Garros.

The world No. 1 rallied from 2-5 down and saved a match point against Osaka, who was bidding to end Swiatek’s march towards a fourth title in Paris.

Swiatek ultimately held firm to score a 16th straight win at Roland Garros—and a 14th in a row on clay—in two hours and 57 minutes under the Court Philippe-Chatrier roof.

The potential clash between Swiatek and Osaka has dominated headlines since the women’s draw was released last week: with a combined eight major victories, it was the highest-wattage Grand Slam match since Serena Williams defeated Maria Sharapova in the first round of the 2019 US Open.

Swiatek, who won 12 straight matches this spring to capture back-to-back titles at the Mutua Madrid Open and the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, was aiming to win a fourth Roland Garros victory in five years, and looked to set the tone with an emphatic first-round win over Léolia Jeanjean on Monday.

Osaka, by contrast, has only just begun to build up her clay-court bona fides, starting her spring at a WTA 250 tournament in Rouen in the hopes of getting extra matches on what has been her least favorite surface. Rounding into form by Rome, she enjoyed an encouraging run to the fourth round and scored Top 20 wins over established clay-courters like Marta Kostyuk and Daria Kasatkina.

Her Roland Garros campaign got off to a far bumpier start when she held off a late surge and second-set hiccup to hold off Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti and win her first Grand Slam match since 2022, having missed last season to give birth to daughter Shai.

Osaka and Swiatek had faced off only twice before, splitting their previous hard-court meetings, but Swiatek won their most recent encounter in the finals of the 2022 Miami Open—the start of the Pole’s all-but-uninterrupted reign atop the WTA rankings.

With the roof closed due to persistent rain in Paris, Swiatek and Osaka traded blows from the back of the court, with Osaka rallying from 2-4 down in the opening set to find herself up set point in the 10th game.

Swiatek held on and proceeded to dominate the ensuing Sudden Death, striking one more winner than Osaka (18 to 17) to win the opening set in just over an hour.

Osaka turned the tables on Swiatek in a major way as the second set got underway, blasting the ball through the court and confounding an overpowered Swiatek with 10 winners to just two unforced errors to level the match behind three breaks of serve.

The third set began with a pair of titanic service games, with both earning opportunities to break. It was Osaka who drew first blood, holding on from three break points down to open the decider and striking a cross-court backhand winner to move ahead, 2-0.

Things only got more intense from there, as Swiatek surged ahead 0-40 only for Osaka to draw the top seed into an over seven-minute game. The Japanese star ultimately saved five break points in that game alone to consolidate her advantage as Swiatek netted a forehand reply.

Swiatek found her best form with her back against the wall, digging out of a long sixth game of on her own serve to avoid another double-break deficit. But Osaka dug into a vein of solid serving reminiscent of when she won her four majors and struck a powerful forehand to jam Swiatek and put herself a game away from the upset.

Continuing to rush Swiatek as she served to stay in the match, Osaka pulled up a 0-30 lead with a searing forehand winner. Nerves threatened to derail her from there as Osaka lost the next four points and missed a forehand in the next game that would have handed her two match points.

Osaka steadied long enough to save a break point and set up match point with a stirring backhand winner, but Swiatek saved it with a strong second-serve return. Errors continued to leak off the Osaka racquet and scored a second straight game to put get the set back on serve.

With the set deadlocked at five games apiece, Osaka kept pressing, striking a 27th forehand winner to save a break point but double faulted to lose a fourth straight game, handing Swiatek the chance to serve for the match.

Outrallying Osaka, Swiatek set up two match points with a thunderous backhand winner, converting when Osaka erred wide off the backhand side after just under three hours on court.

Awaiting Swiatek in the third round will be either Marie Bouzkova or Croatian lucky loser Jana Fett, who are scheduled to face off on Thursday.