Swiatek sinks Begu in Olympics first round

World No.1 Iga Swiatek made a winning start to her quest for a gold medal at the Paris Olympics with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Irina-Camela Begu at Roland Garros on Saturday.

The 1-hour, 45-minute win on Court Philippe-Chatrier earned the prohibitive podium favorite — winning any medal in Paris would be a “dream come true,” she says — a 22nd straight win on the grounds of Roland Garros, and a 20th consecutive clay-court win this year after she captured titles in the spring in Madrid, Rome and Paris.

But she did not have things all her own way in her return to her favorited surface against a former Top 25 player in Begu — who twice in her career has reached the second week of the French Open, and was entered in her third Olympics on an injury-protected ranking after she missed six months in the last year due to injury.

Playing with the roof closed due to rain, Swiatek hit more unforced errors than winners (30 to 22) but had more than her fair share of opportunities on return to avoid a third set. She broke Begu’s serve five times in 15 total opportunities, and won the match’s last four games.

But it was in that stretch where Swiatek cleaned up her game the most: She hit just one unforced error in the last four games to start her second Olympic campaign with a win.

Swiatek will play either Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska or France’s Diane Parry in the second round, the round in which she suffered a shock exit in her Olympic debut in Tokyo three years ago. 

Other notable results

• Rain was the story of the opening day of play in Paris, with the roofed courts of Chatrier and Court Suzanne-Lenglen the only two courts seeing play on the opening day.
• The woman that Swiatek beat to win Roland Garros this year, Jasmine Paolini, also beat a Romanian in her first match. In her Olympic debut, the fourth-seeded Italian was a 7-5, 6-3 winner against Ana Bogdan under the Lenglen roof in the first completed match of the Games. She was 4-1 down in the first set.
• Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian, though, avoided the fate of her compatriots. She came from a set down to upset No.17 seed Caroline Garcia 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the second round. Garcia was elevated to a seeded position after No.3 seed Elena Rybakina withdrew from the competition on the eve of it with illness.

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