Iga Swiatek, the 24-year-old Polish tennis star, advanced to the third round of the French Open by beating world No. 35 Sara Bejlek 6-2, 6-3 on August 16 [1, 2]. Swiatek described Bejlek's playing style as "tricky" and said she "mixes up the rhythm quite well," which made the match challenging [1].
Swiatek has won the French Open title three consecutive times from 2022 to 2024 and last year lost in the semifinals to Aryna Sabalenka [1, 2]. She recently began working with Francisco Roig, a former coach of Rafael Nadal, who has been training her at Nadal's Mallorca academy ahead of the clay-court season. Swiatek said, "I spent a week in Mallorca, which is amazing, because starting the clay-court season there gave me a lot of energy and motivation" [1]. She added, "We speak the same language, and he asks me how I want to play. For sure we practise a little bit differently and I needed to adjust to that but, week by week, I can take more and more from Francis, that’s for sure" [2].
On August 12, Swiatek spent a week training at Roig's academy preparing for the tournament [1, 2]. Her next opponent will be either Jelena Ostapenko or Magda Linette in the French Open's third round [1, 2].