Will Swiatek win 30 in a row?
World number one Iga Swiatek secured her only ever overall victory at a Grand Slam tournament at the 2020 French Open. The 20-year-old will start this year as the heavy favourite. Her 2-0 opening victory over Lesia Tsurenko was her 29th in a row. Not since Serena Williams (2013) has a lady had such a long run on the WTA Tour
Alison Riske also celebrated a 2-0 win in her opening match against Dayana Yastremska. The American, who had only won one of her eight matches at the French Open, benefited from many errors by the Ukrainian. In the run-up to the match between Iga Swiatek and Alison Riske, the odds are clearly in favour of the Pole.
Even though the American doesn’t like clay courts very much – she’s even gone winless on a few occasions in the clay court season – there’s practically everything to suggest that the exceptional Polish player will now secure her 30th singles win in a row. A long match is certainly not to be expected.
Iga Swiatek – Statistics & current form
Current ranking in the world rankings: 1
Position in the seedings: 1
The 20-year-old Iga Swiatek is currently floating in completely separate spheres. The player, who won the French Open for the first time two years ago at the tender age of 18, has been the absolute measure of all things on the WTA Tour since the retirement of Ashleigh Barty at the latest.
The Pole is the first woman since Serena Williams (2013) to win 28 consecutive singles matches in the run-up to the French Open. In a run that began in February, she has already secured five singles titles in the current season.
Even top-10 players have been without a chance recently
The 20-year-old also recently won the two clay court tournaments in Stuttgart and Rome, where she not only defeated Aryna Sabalenka and Ons Jabeur, two opponents from the top 10 of the WTA world rankings, but also dispatched them in all clarity.
The world number one has hardly ever lost more than four games in a match, which is why Iga Swiatek’s betting on a two-set win against Alison Riske with a 7.5-game lead is also very good.
The perfect blend of aggression and patience
Perhaps the Polish player’s greatest weapon is her well-dosed aggression. While other attacking players produce a lot of unforced errors with a high number of winners, the 20-year-old is always able to wait patiently for her opponent’s mistakes at the right moment. Nevertheless, she takes the balls early, finds poisonous angles and immediately builds up pressure.
In her smooth 2-0 opening win, she not only scored 74% of the time on her first serve, but also converted a staggering 70% of all returns into points, which allowed the Pole to break six times in 54 minutes of play.
Alison Riske – Statistics & current form
Current world ranking: 43
Position in the seedings: unseeded
The 31-year-old American Alison Riske already celebrated her debut on the WTA Tour in 2007. However, the player from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has only really made a regular appearance since 2010, when she made her Grand Slam debut at the Wimbledon Championships.
Since then, Riske has competed in a total of 38 Grand Slam tournaments, in which she has only managed a combined total of 25 victories. Her only impressive run came at Wimbledon 2019, when the journey took her all the way to the quarter-finals.
First two wins compared to seven losses at Roland Garros
Her ability on grass, where she recorded 11 of her 25 singles wins at Grand Slam tournaments in the run-up to the 2022 French Open, contrasts with a consistently poor performance on clay. In seven appearances at Roland Garros alone, she has only won a singles match in 2014.
In the past seven years, the American has failed to reach the first round six times before the 31-year-old even missed the 125th edition a year ago due to injury. That made her opening win this year all the more surprising, although she benefited from a high error rate by her Ukrainian opponent.
Still winless in two meetings against Swiatek
The player, who doesn’t get on too well on clay courts, will consequently go into the match with the current world number one as a heavy underdog.
After all, the direct comparison also speaks against the American, who has not won a single set in two duels with the Pole so far…
Iga Swiatek – Alison Riske Direct comparison / H2H-balance
Head to head: 2:0
The two players have faced each other twice, with both matches dating back to the 2021 clay court season. After Iga Swiatek won the first match in Madrid outright 2-0 (6-1 and 6-1), the American was forced to retire injured shortly after in Rome after nine games in the first set
Iga Swiatek – Alison Riske Tip
When it comes to Iga Swiatek against Alison Riske, the prediction clearly goes in the direction of the world number one, who is currently unbeaten in 29 singles matches in a row. The Pole also swept other top 10 players with hardly any games in record time. It would take a lot of imagination to believe that Swiatek will now falter against an American who is not very experienced on clay court.
Everything points to the next gala performance by the Pole, who with her irresistible mix of aggression and patience is likely to concede very few games against the American as well.
