Swiatek returns to Roland Garros with history -- and motivation -- on her side

While this spring’s clay season brought new challenges, Iga Swiatek arrives at her most successful Slam with a 21-match win streak at Roland Garros and a deep sense of familiarity.

Iga Swiatek’s first social post from Roland Garros this year was a wonderfully efficient combination of work and pleasure: Jamming on the bike at the gym, watching “Desperate Housewives.”

“I missed Jean Bouin courts so much,” Swiatek wrote. “Great to be here again.”

There were also photos of her in the locker room at the 11-court practice facility, as well as a tasty-looking al fresco lunch.

The City of Light is fully in bloom, but the 23-year-old from Poland won’t be visiting the tourist spots -- Notre Dame Cathedral, the gardens of the Tuileries, the high-end shops along Avenue George V or the charming banks of the River Seine.

She has some urgent business to attend to. Fifty weeks ago, Swiatek won the French Open title, equaling the enormous feat of Justine Henin, who also won three straight crowns, from 2005-07. She returns to Paris -- main-draw play begins Sunday -- with a tantalizing conundrum as the backdrop.

Swiatek, working on a 21-match winning streak, hasn’t lost a match at this tournament in nearly four years.

And yet … questions swirl around the four-time Roland Garros champion. It’s truly difficult to comprehend, but she hasn’t won a title since defeating Jasmine Paolini in last year’s French Open final.

“I just wasn’t there present to, like, fight and to compete,” Swiatek said after losing a third-round straight-sets match to Danielle Collins in Rome. “I focused on mistakes. It’s my mistake, and I’m not doing things right.

“So yeah, the focus is on the wrong things from my side, and I’ll try to change that.”

That was two weeks ago -- not much time to correct a malaise that has hovered over her since late last season. In a surprisingly narrow space of time, she served a brief drug suspension, parted ways with her longtime coach and lost the No. 1 ranking. But the promise of a return to the comfort of clay, where her record since 2021 is 81-10, .890, had people thinking Swiatek would regain her rhythm.

She won the Stuttgart title in 2022 and 2023, but fell (for the sixth straight time) to Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. In Madrid, where she was the defending champion, there was a demoralizing 6-1, 6-1 loss to Coco Gauff in the semifinals. The three-time Rome champion didn’t make it to the Round of 16.

And while most players would take a 6-3 record over 24 days on European red clay, Iga Swiatek isn’t most players. Given recent form, you can make a reasonable case that Jasmine Paolini, Aryna Sabalenka, Gauff, Mirra Andreeva and Zheng Qinwen all have as good a chance to win this year in Paris.

After exiting in Madrid, Swiatek seemed baffled.

“I feel like I haven't been moving well and, you know, the tennis also was like on and off for most of the tournament. So I wasn't really sure what I have in my toolbox. I didn’t even have a plan B because nothing was working today.

“For sure everything kind of collapsed. I feel like I wasn’t even in the right place with my feet before the shots.”

The good news? For a solid week now, Swiatek has been practicing and working out at Roland Garros, where she has been all but invincible. In six appearances, she’s compiled a sterling 35-2 record and won four titles.

Her idol, Rafael Nadal, posted eerily similar numbers in his first six outings in Paris -- 38-1 with five titles. No one, least of all Swiatek, would suggest she’s on the path to Nadal’s 14 titles at Roland Garros -- the most of any player at any Grand Slam, but this comparison early in the curve underlines just how terrific Swiatek has been.

Perhaps she’ll be inspired by the Court Philippe Chatrier tribute ceremony the French Tennis Federation has planned for Nadal, who played his final match there last year. Or moved by the banners that represent her titles. Or channel the feeling of running through a 128-player field without a misstep -- times four.

“My head kind of remembers the good stuff,” Swiatek said in Rome. “Sometimes I’m on court, I feel like I’m going to play this loopy forehand there, my great backhand there. I kind of assume it’s going to go in, and then I make mistakes. It’s not the same, I’m confused.

“That’s why every tournament and every year is different. But still I feel like with the way sometimes I’ve been playing, I feel like I’m doing good results. I’m close to doing a little bit more. I just need to just push a little bit more and not let my thoughts go around like this.”

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