Iga Swiatek kicked off her 2026 French Open campaign with an emphatic win over Emerson Jones, resulting in former world No 1 Mats Wilander declaring that she \u201clooks impossible\u201d to beat on Court Philippe-Chatrier.<\/p>\n
The four-time Roland Garros champion made a sluggish start to the clay-court swing as she lost her second match at the Stuttgart Open and then retired due to illness from her round of 32 match against Ann Li at the Madrid Open.<\/p>\n
But she found some form at the Italian Open as she reached her first semi-final of the year before losing in three sets against Elina Svitolina<\/a>, but there were certainly signs that the \u201cold\u201d Swiatek was back during her run in Rome.<\/p>\n And she looked in good nick again during her opening match against Emerson in Paris, beating the wildcard 6-1, 6-2 in exactly an hour.<\/p>\n During her on-court interview, Swiatek<\/a> stated: \u201cI\u2019m just really happy to play on this court. First matches are always also for getting used to the conditions and everything. I\u2019m really happy with the way I played today, tactically, and I felt the ball good. So it was a good first match for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n WTA Rankings: How Elena Rybakina can overtake Aryna Sabalenka at No 1 after French Open<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Iga Swiatek declares players are not \u2018slaves\u2019 as she explains new French Open outlook<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n TNT Sports expert Mats Wilander<\/a> was quick to declare that Swiatek has found her best form again and believes she made a tweak to her game.<\/p>\n The seven-time Grand Slam winner, who won three titles at Roland Garros, said: \u201cShe\u2019s playing better. She\u2019s playing a little bit further behind the baseline. When you watch her play on this court, the ball is bouncing so high.<\/p>\n \u201cIt looks impossible to beat Iga Swiatek on this court. I know it is possible, but I like she\u2019s not being so aggressive. She was being super, super aggressive the last few years, and it hasn\u2019t really worked. Right now, she\u2019s back.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilander\u2019s colleague, former world No 5 Henri Leconte \u2013 who finished runner-up to Wilander in the 1988 French Open final, believes the work with Francisco Roig \u2013 who replaced Wim Fissette as Swiatek\u2019s coach after the Miami Open in March \u2013 is evident.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s back where she wants, the French Open, stay on the baseline and go for the shots,\u201d the Frenchman said.<\/p>\n \u201cMoving better. I think the work she did with Roig, that helps a lot. When she\u2019s playing like that, she can be dangerous. You can think about her [as a title contender].\u201d<\/p>\n But while many believe her previous experience puts her in good stead at this year\u2019s French Open, Swiatek is not getting carried away after her first-round win.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing comes easy. Honestly I feel like with more titles it\u2019s even a bit harder because everyone expects you to be ready always and play perfectly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need to stay humble and not take anything for granted and work your way from the beginning of the tournament to play good.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially after Rome where it was pretty cold and much more heavy, the court seems totally different here. You need to adjust for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n *Mats Wilander and Herni Leconte will feature as part of TNT Sports\u2019 Roland-Garros coverage*<\/p>\n *Every match of Roland-Garros is live across TNT Sports and HBO Max*<\/a>.<\/p>\n The post French Open: Iga Swiatek \u2018looks impossible to beat\u2019, according to former world No 1<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Iga Swiatek kicked off her 2026 French Open campaign with an emphatic win over Emerson Jones, resulting in former world No 1 Mats Wilander declaring that she \u201clooks impossible\u201d to beat on Court Philippe-Chatrier. The four-time Roland Garros champion made a sluggish start to the clay-court swing as she lost her second match at the […]<\/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-2236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236","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=2236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}French Open News<\/h2>\n