Naomi Osaka misses match point as world No 1 Iga Swiatek fights back to avoid French Open upset

Naomi Osaka had match point against Iga Swiatek

REUTERS
Stuart Ballard

By Stuart Ballard


Published: 29/05/2024

- 18:58

Updated: 29/05/2024

- 22:42

Naomi Osaka showed signs of her former self in the second round of the French Open against Iga Swiatek.

Naomi Osaka missed out on a glorious chance for a major French Open upset after losing a three-set thriller against world No 1 Iga Swiatek despite having match point.

Swiatek headed into Roland Garros this year looking to win the major for the third successive year.


She's only ever lost twice at the French Open having won the Grand Slam three times.

For Osaka, she's never been able to get past the third round of the French Open and is currently fighting to get back into the world top 100

Naomi Osaka had match point against Iga Swiatek

Naomi Osaka had match point against Iga Swiatek

REUTERS

The four-time Grand Slam gave birth to her first child last year before making her return to competitive tennis in January this year.

She's been on the rise during the claycourt season though and impressed at the Italian Open with convincing wins over top seeds Marta Kostyuk and Daria Kasatkina.

But the Japanese tennis star was made to work in the first round of the French Open by Italian Lucia Bronzetti with the match going to three sets.

Osaka managed to get through the contest in the end, but that set up a tricky match against Swiatek, who dropped just three games in her opening match of the tournament.

Swiatek took charge early in the match to break Osaka's serve in the third game, but the former world No 1 broke back and even found a set point to take an early lead

Swiatek managed to hold with a tiebreak needed to separate them both, but the reigning French Open champion stepped up a gear to take the early advantage.

The Polish tennis ace would have expected to kick on from there, but Osaka was unrelenting and got a quick double break to start the second set before comfortably bringing the match level.

Swiatek created multiple break opportunities on Osaka's serve to start the third, but the Japanese star only needed one to take the lead for the first time in the match.

Iga Swiatek managed to fight back

Iga Swiatek managed to fight back

REUTERS

She held a commanding 5-2 lead at one point and opened up her first match point in the ninth game, but Swiatek showed her resilience and broke back to level things up once more.

The very next game saw Osaka fight to try and keep the set on-serve, but she hit a double fault while defending break point to give Swiatek the chance to serve out for the match.

Osaka's head dropped after that and Swiatek made no mistake of her opportunity as she saw out what turned out to be a real scare for the three-time Roland Garros champion.

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Naomi Osaka showed signs of her former self

Naomi Osaka showed signs of her former self

REUTERS

Speaking after the match, Swiatek made a plea to the crowd inside Philippe-Chatrier after growing frustrated with noise disruptions in the second-round clash.

"Sometimes under a lot of pressure when you scream something during the rally or right before the return, it's really, really hard to be focused," she said.

"I usually don't bring this up because I want to be this kind of player that is in the zone and really focused, but this is serious for us.

"We're fighting our whole lives to be better and better and sometimes it's hard to accept that because the stakes are big and there's a lot of money here to win so losing a few points may change a lot.

"Please guys, if you can support us between the rallies but not during that will be really, really amazing."

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