Iga Swiatek battled through a tricky opening-round test at the Italian Open to book her place in the third round, later admitting the \u2018heavy\u2019 conditions in Rome are making it difficult for players to close out points and matches quickly.<\/p>\n
The Pole overcame American Caty McNally 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-3 in a physical two-hour contest on Campo Centrale, surviving a significant second-set wobble before regaining control in the decider.<\/p>\n
Swiatek<\/a> appeared on course for a straightforward victory after dominating the opening set and twice moving within a game of the match in the second.<\/p>\n However, McNally continued to pressure the former world No 1 with aggressive returning, forcing errors at key moments.<\/p>\n Swiatek was unable to serve out the contest at both 5-4 and 6-5 in the second set, despite reaching 30-30 in both service games.<\/p>\n The five-time Grand Slam champion also missed a major opportunity earlier in the set when she failed to convert three double-break points at 3-1, with a string of unforced errors allowing McNally back into the contest.<\/p>\n The American, who was the only player to take a set off Swiatek during her Wimbledon title run last season, once again proved a difficult matchup.<\/p>\n \u201cFor sure, it was a tough match. Caty [McNally] really played great,\u201d the Pole said during her post-match interview.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was fighting for every ball and played some amazing shots in defence.<\/p>\n \u201cI had to really stay patient.<\/p>\n \u201cSome mistakes happened, especially when she played a bit slower, sometimes with the wind it was hard to adjust to the ball.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was not an easy match, but I\u2019m happy I was solid at the end and in the important moments, and I kept it together, and at the end of the match, I was dictating.\u201d<\/p>\n Novak Djokovic\u2019s best chance at a record-breaking 25th Grand Slam title revealed by expert<\/a><\/p>\n Novak Djokovic expresses frustration on tennis schedule at the Italian Open, \u2018I don\u2019t like this\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Swiatek will next face either American Emma Navarro or Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto as she attempts to rediscover momentum on one of her favourite surfaces.<\/p>\n The 23-year-old is a three-time champion in Rome, having lifted the trophy in 2021, 2022, and 2024, but arrives at this year\u2019s tournament under more scrutiny than usual following an inconsistent opening few months of the season.<\/p>\n Swiatek has yet to reach a semi-final in 2026 and currently holds a modest 14-8 win-loss record, a sharp contrast to the dominant standards she established over the past several years on clay.<\/p>\n Her difficult start to the year also led to a major coaching change as, following a surprise opening-match defeat to Magda Linette at the Miami Open, Swiatek ended her long-term partnership with Tomasz Wiktorowski.<\/p>\n Shortly after, it was announced that she had brought in Francisco Roig, the former coach of Rafael Nadal, who spent nearly two decades working alongside the Spanish legend.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important thing is to get used to the conditions and get used to what you cannot do on this court,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember many tough matches here, especially at the beginning of the tournament.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to stay patient and fight for every point, because the court is super slow, especially when it\u2019s a bit colder than usual.<\/p>\n \u201cThe court is heavy so it\u2019s hard to finish the rally.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to really be solid.<\/p>\n \u201cFor sure, the conditions are tough, that\u2019s why you can see so many long matches.\u201d<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The post Iga Swiatek reveals key to winning \u2018tough\u2019 first match at the Italian Open after McNally scare<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Iga Swiatek battled through a tricky opening-round test at the Italian Open to book her place in the third round, later admitting the \u2018heavy\u2019 conditions in Rome are making it difficult for players to close out points and matches quickly. The Pole overcame American Caty McNally 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-3 in a physical two-hour contest on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2147\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Latest Tennis News<\/strong><\/h2>\n