Match of the Year? The clash between the former world number one and the current one decided the name of a potential opponent for the Czech tennis player

Wednesday’s French Open schedule was significantly affected by the inclement weather. In the women’s section, only four matches were played under a cloudy roof. However, the duel between Swiatek and Osaka offered a great spectacle. We may well have witnessed the match of the year.

Naomi Osaka did not enter the French Open as she expected. She played a battle with Italian Bronzetti for more than two hours, which ended 6:1, 4:6 and 7:5 in favour of the Japanese tennis player.

After an unconvincing performance in the first round, the Polish tennis player was expected to win the duel with Iga Swiatek. The latter had already managed to triumph three times in the past in the local environment.

At the beginning of the match, the older of the two players lost her serve, which greatly helped the current world number one. However, she lost this advantage in the eighth game of the opening set and the match started with a clean slate.

Swiatek won the first set in the tiebreak, and took the shortened game 7:1. From the beginning of the second set, however, the two-time Australian Open and US Open winner clearly dominated the court.

She won the second set for herself in just 28 minutes by 6: 1. The twenty-six year old tennis player continued in a similar vein, building a 5:2 lead in the deciding game and a 30:0 advantage on her opponent’s serve.

But she was unable to capitalize on it, and the subsequent matchball did not help her to win. The winner of the recent tournament in Rome committed to a perfect turn and finally won the third set in 8 minutes by 7:5.

Did the French Open offer the best match of the year?

But we can definitely say that we quite possibly watched the best match on the WTA circuit in the calendar year 2024. The match lasted exactly three hours and offered more than 90 winning strokes.

The number one seed will play the third round, where she could face Maria Bouzkova. On Tuesday, the Czech player played her match against Croatia’s Fettova, but the match was suspended due to bad weather at 6:2 and 1:0 for the Prague native. The match is scheduled to be played on Thursday.

Source