12:19
Swiatek 1-0 Kovinic
Then a cross backhand is given by Swiatek Aus. The chair umpire looks at it himself. The ball was still on the line. Two new ones!
12:18
Swiatek 1-0 Kovinic
But Kovinic does not get the game, fails because of the obstacle. As a result, Swiatek continues to work on the break, gets help from the Montenegrin, who completely fails a forehand stop. That means the first breakball of this game.
12:16
Swiatek 1-0 Kovinic
Swiatek doesn’t want to give up the game yet, forcing the competitor to make a debut. After that, however, a forehand inside-in is too long for her.
12:15 p.m
Swiatek 1-0 Kovinic
Then the favorite might want a little too much, missing two returns. And then a forehand longline is just given out. This first slight mistake by the Pole gives Kovinic a cue ball.
12:12
Swiatek 1-0 Kovinic
Now Kovinic serves – and immediately catches a backhand longline from the opponent. Swiatek once again doesn’t want to leave any doubts.
12:12
Swiatek 1-0 Kovinic
Then Swiatek serves to the outside, plays the forehand precisely to the other side. Kovinic no longer catches this ball properly. To zero, the number 1 brews to win the game for the first time.
12:11
Swiatek 0-0 Kovinic
From the start, Swiatek seemed focused and tried to put pressure on. This is how the top seeded Poland forces the opponent to make mistakes.
12:08 p.m
1 sentence
Now Iga Swiatek opens the match. A first rally develops over the second serve, which Kovinic ends with a backhand into the net.
12:03
Entry and coin toss
Meanwhile, our protagonists are on the Court Philippe-Chatrier to compete against each other for the first time ever. After a few steps of preparation, you meet on the net to vote. With loose clouds and 17 degrees, the conditions are extremely pleasant.
11:56
Kovinic at Roland Garros
Since 2014, Kovinic has regularly started at the Grand Slam tournament in the French capital, never getting past the second round. The right-hander is in the main draw for the seventh time, having failed to qualify between 2018 and 2019. At the start of this week, the unseeded Montenegrin fell behind in the set against 25th seed Liudmila Samsonova and then turned things around quite clearly (2: 6, 6: 2, 6: 1). The Slovakian Anna Karolína Schmiedlová was then eliminated in two sets.
11:46
Kovinic
So the ultimate challenge awaits Danka Kovinic. The Montenegrin is number 95 in the world and reached her previous top position six years ago at 46. It was not enough for the 27-year-old to win a tournament, she lost all three finals – most recently in April 2021 in Charleston. Her best result of the season at WTA level comes from the clay court tournament in Marbella, where it only ended in the semi-finals. Most recently, Kovinic played a lower-class ITF tournament in Wiesbaden, which she won.
11:36
Winner of 2020
Swiatek now has a total of eight career titles. And after the Pole lost her first final on the WTA tour in April 2019, she no longer showed any weaknesses in the finals. And the exceptional player won her first tournament in Roland Garros in 2020 of all places. All of a sudden, Swiatek came into the limelight, completely surprisingly. The world number one is now at the French Open for the fourth time since 2019 and is of course top seeded. Last year the quarter finals were over. This week she started with two very smooth wins against Lesia Tsurenko and Alison Riske. In the two matches, she only gave up two games each.
11:26
Outstanding Swiatek
So at this point we are dealing with the currently best tennis player in the world. Since Ashleigh Barty’s retirement, Iga Swiatek has been at the top of the world rankings. But the Pole not only inherited this position, she underpinned it with an outstanding season so far. While the right-hander had to give up in the semi-finals in Adelaide and at the Australian Open in January, she has been unbeaten since mid-February and has won 30 matches in a row. As a result, the 20-year-old successively won tournaments in Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart and Rome. For eight matches now, she has not lost a set at all.
11:16
bon jour!
Welcome to the French Open! In the women’s individual competition, the remaining matches of the 3rd round are on the program today. At 12:00 p.m. on the Philippe-Chatrier court there will be a clash between Iga Swiatek and Danka Kovinic.