In a match-up that drew a ripple of mischievous amusement as it was announced at the conclusion of Friday morning’s draw, Alcaraz will begin his quest for a third successive crown against Fabio Fognini, the gifted but unpredictable Italian whose languid shot-making belies a notoriously fiery disposition.

Fognini has hinted that this is likely to be his final year on the tour and, while it would be stretching it to suggest an upset could be on the cards, the 38-year-old will undoubtedly relish the prospect of facing a big name on Centre Court in what may be his last match at Wimbledon. The pair have met twice previously, both times on red clay in Rio de Janeiro, with Alcaraz winning on each occasion. 

The Spanish second seed is projected to face Holger Rune of Denmark in the quarter-finals, with either Alexander Zverev, the German world No 3, or Taylor Fritz, the fifth seed, barring his path to another final. 

Krejcikova, meanwhile, was drawn against Alexandra Eala of the Philippines, the 20-year-old left-hander whose breakout run to the semi-finals of the Miami Open earlier this year included victories over Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek. The 74th-ranked Eala, who has made encouraging progress on grass ahead of her main draw debut at Wimbledon, will cross swords with Australian teenager Maya Joint for the Eastbourne Open title on Saturday.

It represents a tough start for Krejcikova, who has barely played since the turn of the year due to a back injury and withdrew from her scheduled Eastbourne quarter-final against Varvara Gracheva this week with a thigh problem, raising further doubts about her fitness. The 29-year-old Czech, currently ranked 17th, defeated Jasmine Paolini in last year’s Wimbledon final to claim her second grand slam title following her French Open victory of four years ago. 

Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1, will open her challenge against Carson Branstine, a 24-year-old Canadian qualifier. The 27-year-old Belarusian could meet former champion Marketa Vondrousova, who defeated her in straights sets in the semi-finals of the Berlin Open last weekend, in round three. Sabalenka is projected to face Madison Keys, the Australian Open champion, in the last eight, with either Paolini or Qinwen Zheng, the Olympic champion and fifth seed, potentially awaiting in the semi-finals.

In the lower half of the draw, second seed Coco Gauff will begin her campaign against the 42nd-ranked Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine and could play former world No 1 Victoria Azarenka in round two. 

Gauff, 21, is expected to face Swiatek in the last eight – although the Pole, who opens against Polina Kudermetova, may first have to get past either Danielle Collins or Marta Kostyuk in the third round, followed by Elena Rybakina, the 2022 champion. The American, who won her second major title at the French Open earlier this month, is seeded to meet fellow countrywoman Jessica Pegula, who starts against Elisabetta Cocciaretto of Italy, in the last four.

Elsewhere in the men’s draw, top seed Jannik Sinner opens against Luca Nardi and is expected to meet another Italian opponent, Lorenzo Musetti, in the last eight. Sinner could then be in line for a reunion with Novak Djokovic, who defeated him in the semi-finals two years ago. First, though, Djokovic may need to see off Britain’s Jack Draper, the fourth seed, who gave the seven-time champion an opening-round scare on his main draw debut in 2021. 

With his thunderous southpaw serve and heavy forehand, Draper would seem to have a game ideally suited to grass. But the 23-year-old, who will be carrying the hopes of the home nation despite never previously going beyond round two in three visits to SW19, has been handed an onerous draw. Following an opening-round assignment against Sebastián Báez, the world No 38, Draper could meet former finalist Marin Cilic, followed by Alexander Bublik – who defeated him at the French Open earlier this month and won the Halle Open on grass last weekend – and the rising Czech teenager Jakub Mensik.

Emma Raducanu, who aggravated a lingering back injury during her recent quarter-final run at Queen’s Club, has been handed a similarly difficult path. The former US Open champion, who reached the fourth for the second time last year, begins against 17-year-old wildcard Mimi Xu, a former British national junior champion. Assuming she survives unscathed, Raducanu will face either the resurgent Vondrousova, who won the Berlin Open title last week, or the American 32nd seed McCartney Kessler – followed, in all likelihood, by Sabalenka.

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In the emotional aftermath of a final that swung back and forth for almost two hours before Krejcikova finally prevailed 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, the 28-year-old Czech paid an eloquent and composed tribute to her compatriot, who coached and counselled her before her death from cancer in November 2017. Speaking in her on-court interview, Krejcikova recalled how a coaching partnership that began when she knocked on Novotna’s door as an 18-year-old, clutching a letter and asking for guidance, changed her life.  

“I think coming to Jana, knocking on her door, giving her the letter – everything that happened during that moment, I think it just changed my life,” said Krejcikova, the 31st seed, after winning her second grand slam singles title. “It definitely changed my tennis life, because during the period when I finished juniors, I didn’t know what I should do, if I should continue and play pro, or if I should go the way of education. 

“Jana was the one that told me I had the potential, and that I should definitely turn pro and just try to make it. Before she passed away, she told me to go and win a slam, and I achieved that in Paris in 2021. It was an unbelievable moment for me, and I never really dreamed that I would win the same trophy as Jana did in 1998.”

Shortly afterwards, when the cheers had subsided and the glare of flashing cameras dulled, the emotion of the moment hit home in earnest. It is more than a quarter of a century since Novotna banished the memory of two losing finals by claiming a cathartic victory over Nathalie Tauziat, but memories of her title run, five years after a heart-wrenching defeat to Steffi Graf in the 1993 final left her crying on the shoulder of the Duchess of Kent, will forever be embedded in Wimbledon folklore. Having made her way off Centre Court, Krejcikova paused to gaze at the honours board, where her name had been freshly inscribed alongside Novotna’s on the roll of honour. She was overwhelmed with emotion. 

“The only thing that was going through my head was that I miss Jana a lot,” said Krejcikova. “It was just very emotional, a very emotional moment to see me on a board right next to her. I think she would be proud. I think she would be really excited that I’m on the same board as she is, because Wimbledon was super special for her.”

In an absorbing final, it required a performance of outstanding quality and resilience from Krejcikova to subdue an impassioned fightback from the seventh-seeded Paolini, who gave everything in pursuit of her dream of becoming the first Italian Wimbledon champion. For a set, she was played off the court. Krejcikova, picking up from where she left off in her semi-final win over Elena Rybakina, the former champion and title favourite, made a near-flawless start, putting a remarkable 90% of first serves into play in the opener and barely missing a return. But Paolini roused herself magnificently in the second set, returning from a bathroom break with renewed energy and aggression to turn the match on its head. 

After returning to the fray, Paolini ripped through her opening service game, her groundstrokes acquiring fresh depth and penetration as she moved up the court and sought to dictate. Showing a first hint of fallibility, Krejcikova made a trio of unforced errors in the next game to drop serve for the first time. When the Czech sliced tamely into the net to miss a break point in the next game, frustration surfaced, Krejcikova gesturing in exasperation after being disturbed by a noise from the crowd. Now Paolini was on her way, refocusing her attack on the Czech’s backhand even as Krejcikova became increasingly passive off the forehand. The shift in momentum was most starkly reflected in the players’ serving statistics. While Paolini’s second serve win percentage rose from 38% in the first set to 83% in the second, Krejcikova’s dipped from 50% to 33%, a measure of the Italian’s rising assertiveness.

Having fought back from a set down against Donna Vekic to win the longest women’s semi-final in Wimbledon history, Paolini had more history in her sights as she matched Krejcikova step for step over the first six games of the final set. No woman had rebounded from losing the first set in the final two rounds at the All England Club since Graf came from behind against Novotna and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario to win the 1995 title. 

But facing the first break point of the decider at 3-3, Paolini unsuccessfully challenged a call on her first serve, the disruption to her rhythm and focus costing her dearly. Delivering her only double fault of the entire afternoon, Paolini gifted Krejcikova what proved a decisive breakthrough. Three games later, the Czech navigated a nervy service game to convert her third match point with a 108mph delivery that went unreturned. 

It has nonetheless been an extraordinary six months for Paolini, who had never won a match on grass before this year and started her season ranked outside the world’s top 30. Having since reached the last 16 of the Australian Open, won the biggest title of her career in Dubai, and made a left-field run to the French Open final, Paolini will now rise to a career high of fifth on Monday. That will perhaps come as scant consolation after losing the biggest match of her life, but the late-blooming 28-year-old, who was demolished by Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros, knows she is getting closer

“I started bad, but I said, ‘OK, take some time and try to relax and to come back in the second set stronger, to try to push the ball more,’” said Paolini. “I was a little bit, you know, controlling too much, and I missed a lot of shots. But she was playing, honestly, very good. The first set she was serving really, really good, a high percentage of first serves, so it was tough. I think I did better than the last final, but still not enough.” 

Krejcikova, meanwhile, did more than she ever imagined possible. On an afternoon when she joined a long and illustrious line of Czech Wimbledon champions dating back to Jaroslav Drobny in 1954, all the way through to Marketa Vondrousova last year, two of the most famous, Martina Navratilova and Jan Kodes, looked on approvingly from the Royal Box. Somewhere, perhaps, so too did Novotna, the most important of them all.

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The 28-year-old Czech defeated Elena Rybakina, the former champion and runaway title favourite, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, to reach her first final at the All England Club, where she will face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini at the weekend. 

Across a fortnight packed with uncertainties, Rybakina had seemed the one sure thing. While her fellow top-five seeds were buffeted and toppled – Jessica Pegula in the second round, Iga Swiatek in the third, Coco Gauff in the fourth – the 25-year-old Kazakhstani defied the prevailing mayhem, making serene progress through the second quarter of the draw. Aside from Germany’s Laura Siegemund, who pushed her to a decider in round two, no one had taken more than three games in a set against Rybakina. She knew the course and distance, having won the title two summers against Ons Jabeur, and was mercifully free of the health problems that afflicted her in Rome and Paris. Surely she would be the one to step up, reaffirming the notion of a women’s “big three” by joining Aryna Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion – sadly forced to withdraw through injury on the first Monday – and Iga Swiatek, the French Open winner, as the third different champion in three grand slams?

It was a solid enough argument, but it overlooked a number of intangibles. Krejcikova, a former world No 2 and winner of the 2021 French Open, also knows what it is to go the distance at a major – even at Wimbledon, where she has won two doubles titles. She too had advanced to the last four for the loss of just one set (albeit her opening-round win over Veronika Kudermetova, 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (1-7), 7-5, could barely have been tighter). Above all, Krejcikova had won both her previous meetings with Rybakina, and was no doubt one of the last players Rybakina would have wished to see obstructing her path to a third major final. 

After a shaky start, Krejcikova made all those factors tell. She drew on her experience, maintaining her composure and positivity after losing all but one of her first four service games. As Rybakina launched a blistering early barrage, establishing a 4-0 lead, Krejcikova’s mental game was outstanding, the Czech responding to any rare sign of encouragement with a clenched fist. Often in tennis, such gestures are mere bluster, designed to intimidate the player at the opposite end, to let an opponent know that you are there. Not so with Krejcikova, whose stoic detachment is a defining quality of her game, even if her self-exhortations did grow in ferocity as the afternoon wore on. 

Krejcikova also switched up her tactics from the second set onwards, approaching the net more often, using drop shots, crafting angles, moving inside the baseline. Rybakina, who smoked 19 winners in the first set to offset her 15 unforced errors, began to miss, her aggression no longer cancelling out her mistakes. By the time she righted the ship, it was too late.

“At the beginning she was just playing really well, she was just smashing the ball and she was [making] a lot of winners,” said Krejcikova. “But I felt that if I just stayed in the game, and if I kept fighting and tried to just stay there with her, that I’m going to get my chances.

“I felt that I had to maybe put a little bit more pressure on her just to change it. I was just looking for some options, and one of the options that I have is to serve and volley.”

The upshot is that an eighth different women’s champion in eight years will be crowned on Saturday, when Krejcikova will attempt to emulate the Centre Court victory of her late mentor, Jana Novotna, 26 years ago. She referenced the Czech legend in her on-court interview.

“Years ago, I was working with Jana Novotna, she won here in 1998,” Krejcikova recalled. “At that point, she was telling me a lot of stories about journeys here, and how she was trying to win Wimbledon. I was so far, really, when we had this talk. Now I’m here and I’m in the finals. Wow.”

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The 19-year-old American preserved her unbeaten start to the season with a resourceful but unsightly 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (3-7), 6-2 win that featured plenty of spirit and determination but also a whopping 51 unforced errors. In that sense it was by far the dirtiest of what is now, following her triumph at last year’s US Open, a dozen straight grand slam victories for Gauff, who will nonetheless need to improve significantly if she to repeat the victory over Aryna Sabalenka that earned her that maiden grand slam success.

The one saving grace for Gauff was that Kostyuk, a 21-year-old from Kyiv ranked 35 in the world, was even more erratic. Playing in the first major singles quarter-final of her career, Kostyuk was unable to capitalise on a 5-1 lead in the opening set, twice missing set points as nerves – and, later, frustration – got the better of her. So too did an unforced error count that had reached 56 by the time Gauff, who joked afterwards that she ought to read Winning Ugly, the seminal book written by her coach Brad Gilbert, rounded off the longest grand slam match of her career in three hours and eight minutes.

“It was a fight,” said Gauff of a contest played in sweltering conditions. “I think today was definitely a C game, so I didn’t play my best tennis, but I’m really proud that I was able to get through. Hopefully, I got the bad match out of the way.

“I bought a copy [of Winning Ugly] but I didn’t read it. Maybe I should add it to my reading list. My mom actually got it for me when we were in the talks of just possibly working with Brad, and she was like, ‘You need to read this.’ She read it and I didn’t read it. 

“But I feel like I got the real version, so I don’t need a book. But maybe it could help. I’ll probably do it just to surprise him.”

After a performance that stood in marked contrast to Gauff’s seamless progress through the first four rounds at Melbourne Park, there may already be some surprise on Gilbert’s part. Yet for all the fourth seed’s struggles, huge credit must go to Kostyuk, a gifted athlete and powerful ball-striker who, at a tournament where she has striven to highlight the ongoing war in her native Ukraine, once again demonstrated tremendous mental and emotional resilience. 

Despite the disappointment of missing two set points in the opener – the second, a rushed inside-out forehand at 6-5 in the tiebreak, was a particular source of dismay – Kostyuk kept coming, breaking at the start of the second set, breaking again when Gauff served for the match in the ninth game, and even pulling back a couple of games from 5-0 down in the decider. Set to enter the top 30 for the first time following her run in Melbourne, Kostyuk is rightly ringing the positives.

“For me, it’s a win, because I was playing one of the best girls in the world and managed to be still very close,” said the Ukrainian. “It feels far, but also very close. This whole tournament I think is a big win for me.”

Whether it will also be a big win for Gauff will depend on how quickly she can put this performance behind her and make a rapid return to form against Sabalenka. Through to a sixth straight grand slam semi-final after demolishing Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3, the Belarusian defending champion has yet to drop more than three games in a set in Melbourne.

“I think my mindset is that I’m not getting crazy on court, I’m not rushing things,” said Sabalenka, the second seed, of her newfound consistency on the game’s biggest stages. “I’m just playing point by point, and that’s it, and fighting for every point without overthinking about my dreams, about what I want to do, about how many slams I want to win and all that stuff.  

“I was able to separate myself from that kind of mentality and just start focusing on myself and focusing on things I can improve.”

Sabalenka’s focus was certainly admirable against Krejcikova, particularly after a late start caused by the length of the day session, which overran when Gauff’s epic win was followed by a protracted struggle between Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz. 

Sabalenka and Krejcikova, who eventually arrived on court well after 9pm, were controversially asked by tournament organisers if they would care to play on Margaret Court Arena, which has about half the capacity of Rod Laver Arena. Understandably, they declined.

“I think for the quarter-finals match, it’s important to be played on such a big stadium,” said Sabalenka.

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Two years ago, the Miami Open’s grandstand court was the scene of heartbreak for Andreescu, who was forced to retire in the final against Ashleigh Barty after turning an ankle. It was a major blow for the Canadian, who had barely returned from a 15-month absence caused by a torn meniscus in her left knee, an injury she suffered shortly after winning the US Open in 2019.

History repeated itself in distressing fashion at Miami Gardens on Monday night as Andreescu, a set down to Ekaterina Alexandrova but a break up early in the second, abruptly abandoned her pursuit of a wide forehand, crumpling to the court in agony as she clutched her left ankle. 

“Oh my God!” cried a tearful Andreescu, screaming and rolling in agony on the baseline as Julie Kjendlie, the Norwegian chair umpire, swiftly made her way over. 

“I’ve never felt this kind of pain before,” added Andreescu, still writhing in pain, when medical staff arrived on the scene a few moments later.

After several minutes, Andreescu was helped to her feet, embracing Alexandrova and exchanging a few words before leaving the court in a wheelchair. As she left, she cast a glance back towards her distraught family in the stands. The look in her eyes spoke of pain, sadness and utter disbelief. No wonder. Not only had she fallen in almost exactly the same spot as her mishap of two years earlier, injury had once again struck at the most inopportune of moments. 

Having seen off a pair of fellow former grand slam champions in Emma Raducanu and Sofia Kenin either side of a notable win over Maria Sakkari, the seventh seed, the effervescent 22-year-old had emerged as one of the tournament’s star attractions. Clearly revelling in her recent return to form – she made the semi-finals of the Thailand Open last month before a shoulder injury forced her to retire against Lesia Tsurenko – Andreescu had spoken this week of regaining her confidence, of feeling good, of regaining her sense of fearlessness. Now she must once again tread the weary path from renaissance to rehab. It was, as Alexandrova acknowledged, too cruel.

“Honestly, I don’t know what to say, just really sorry that it’s happened to her because seeing her on the court in so much pain is just painful to watch,” said the Russian world No 18, who will now meet Petra Kvitova, a 7-5, 7-6 winner over Varvara Gracheva, after advancing 7-6 (7-0), 0-2. 

“You cannot help, you just can do nothing, which is terrible.

“I think she’s going to be fine soon, I’m wishing her a speedy recovery. The first set was super tough and great, it probably could have been a pretty good match for both of us, but unfortunately [the injury] happened.”

Alexandrova was helped on her way by a rain delay of almost two hours, an interval that gave her the opportunity to rethink her tactics after she was forced to recover from an early break. The Russian was joined in the quarter-finals by Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, who made light of the weather delay as she saw off Barbora Krejcikova, the gifted Czech who ended her unbeaten start to the season in Dubai last month.

“I think the key today was my serve, I just put so much pressure on her and then it was kind of easier for me to play on her serve, I could play free, I could go for lines, I could hit the ball a little bit harder,” said Sabalenka, who also defeated Krejcikova in Indian Wells a fortnight ago.

The Belarusian will face Sorana Cirstea, a 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 winner over Marketa Vondrousova, in the last eight. The 32-year-old Romanian, also a quarter-finalist in Indian Wells last week, has never previously faced Sabalenka.

“I know it’s going to be very tough,” said Cirstea, currently ranked 74th. “But I’ve been winning a lot of matches this American swing and I have the confidence.”

Elena Rybakina, the Wimbledon champion and No 10 seed, claimed her first straight-sets victory of the tournament against Elise Mertens, seeing off the Belgian 6-4, 6-3 to book an appointment with Italy’s Martina Trevisan, who beat Jelena Ostapenko, the former French Open champion, 6-3, 6-3.

“I didn’t start the greatest, but [I’m] happy that it was in two sets,” said Rybakina, who saved a match point against Paula Badosa in the previous round after being taken the distance by Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya in her opening match. 

“For sure, physically I’m not the freshest,” added Rybakina, who arrived in Florida hot on the heels of her title run in Indian Wells. “But I’m happy that I’m managing and finding my way.”

Jessica Pegula, the third seed, will play Anastasia Potapova for the second time in a fortnight after coming through 6-1, 7-5 against her good friend and sometime practice partner Magda Linette. The Pole, a semi-finalist at the Australian Open, rallied impressively following a poor start but was unable to convert a set point at 5-4 in the second set.

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“Why do you need consistency?” replied Krejcikova. “There’s so many good players. 

“Each of us can beat anybody, that’s how it is. It’s not boring, not the same person winning all the time – unless Iga last year. She was winning everything. But that was for four months, so let’s see.”

Coming from a woman who watches as much tennis as Krejcikova, the suggestion that Swiatek’s pre-eminence was limited to four months seemed mischievously pointed. When she is not playing herself, Krejcikova is a perennial presence in the stands at tournaments, and it will not have escaped her notice that Swiatek’s victory roll ranged well beyond the 37-match winning streak that earned her six consecutive titles between February and June of last year. 

A dedicated student of the game, Krejcikova will have looked on with interest as the Pole was crowned US Open champion last September, just as she will have known that Swiatek won in San Diego the following month. And it was only a superb performance by Krejcikova herself, in the final of October’s Ostrava Open, that denied Swiatek a late-season treble. 

So it seemed slightly disingenuous for the Czech to suggest that Swiatek’s dominance was confined to the early part of the year, and decidedly bullish when she punctuated her analysis with that final “let’s see”.

See she did, though, halting Swiatek’s barnstorming progress through the early part of the Middle Eastern swing with a brilliant 6-4, 6-2 victory that offered further evidence of her ability to discomfit the world No 1. If Krejcikova appears more confident than most when confronted by Swiatek, it is with good reason. Krejcikova has now won the two most recent of the four meetings between the pair, and also held match points in a third, in Rome in 2021. It is clearly a difficult matchup for Swiatek, who has yet to find a convincing solution to the Czech’s variety, precision and disguise. 

Rarely rushed or thrown off balance, Swiatek was run ragged here, her customary baseline dominance neutered by Krejcikova’s ability to take the ball on the rise and redirect her groundstrokes into the corners. The French and US Open champion struggled merely to get a read on the ball, let alone deal with the savage punishment Krejcikova meted out to her second serve, behind which she won just four points.

It all made for an incongruous spectacle, particularly after the imperious run of form that carried Swiatek to an emphatic title defence in Doha last week, and which saw her advance to a second straight final for the loss of just nine games. The concern for the 21-year-old will lie not only in Krejcikova’s ability to replicate last October’s victory in Ostrava, but also in the apparent ease with which the world No 30 adapted that game style from an indoor court in the eastern Czech Republic to a quicker outdoor surface in Dubai. 

“Today was a different match, different conditions, different everything,” said Krejcikova, who hailed Swiatek’s achievements as a source of motivation afterwards. “I think I chose the right strategy. I was doing what I should have been doing. I think I started really well. It was really important that I got it. I felt that I was getting the chances to beat her, and I’m really happy that I did.”

The 27-year-old, who claimed her maiden grand slam title at the French Open two years ago but had never previously won a WTA 1000 event, now finds herself in elite company. Having followed up her quarter-final victory over Sabalenka, the world No 2 and newly crowned Australian Open champion, with a three-set win over Jessica Pegula, the world No 3, she becomes only the fifth player to beat the world’s top three at the same tournament since the women’s rankings were introduced in 1975. Only Steffi Graf, Serena and Venus Williams and Sabalenka – who saw off Ons Jabeur, Pegula and Swiatek at last year’s WTA Finals – have previously accomplished the feat.

“It’s a big achievement, it’s a really big tournament for me,” said Krejcikova. “I had so many big wins that I enjoyed, that I really appreciate. I think I was showing my best tennis this weekend, with every single game I was improving.”

Swiatek, whose focus will now shift to the defence of her Indian Wells and Miami Open titles next month, will likewise seek to get better – although not before she conducts a thorough post-mortem on her latest performance against a player who has now handed her two of only three defeats she has suffered in her 15 tour-level finals.

“I couldn’t find the rhythm, it was much different than the last couple of rounds,” said Swiatek, who was taken aback by her inability to sustain the level she showed against Coco Gauff in the semi-finals. 

“I don’t know if that’s my fault or [whether] Barbara made that situation, but for sure she used it and played pretty smart.

“From my side, I still need to analyse and see what I’ve done wrong, because it surprises me that there is such a difference in that feeling that you get on court over [the course of] a day. 

“So for sure I’m going to focus on that, then just look at it from a different perspective to understand a little bit more. Right now, it’s hard for me to say what made the difference.”

A large part of the answer lies in the simple fact that Krejcikova, whose 2022 season was blighted by an elbow injury that prevented her from making a meaningful defence of her French Open title, is fully fit once more and back in the kind of form that lifted her to a career-high ranking of No 2 this time last year. Not unjustifiably, Krejcikova sees herself not merely as a disruptor of the top three, but as a member of that elite trio in her own right – as she was not slow to point out when asked about her ranking, which will rise 14 places to 16th following her success in Dubai. 

“I was injured for four months last year,” said the Czech. “That’s why I’m not in the top three. That’s the reason.”

On this evidence, she is not wrong. Roland Garros promises to be fascinating.

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Swiatek will face Barbora Krejcikova in Saturday’s showpiece after the Czech saw off third seed Jessica Pegula 6-1, 5-7, 6-0, to set up a potential repeat of last October’s three-set thriller in Ostrava. 

The result went against Swiatek on that occasion, one of only two losses she has suffered in 14 tour-level finals to date, and neither was the Polish world No 1 entirely able to control the narrative against Gauff.

Success has become a relative term for those facing Swiatek, certainly since her Australian Open defeat to Elena Rybakina last month, and for Gauff it was to be found in the fact that she accounted for six of the nine games the top seed has conceded on her way to the final. 

It will come as scant consolation, of course, particularly after a sixth successive loss against the woman who humbled her in her maiden grand slam final at Roland Garros last summer. And it true that Swiatek held a healthy lead in both sets before Gauff belatedly roused herself. Yet the American prodigy pushed Swiatek harder than anyone else has managed over the past fortnight, denying her as she attempted to serve out the opener at 5-2, saving two set points in the next game with some brilliant attacking play, and exerting enough pressure from the baseline to unsettle the Pole as she served at 4-1 in the second, producing two double-faults.

“I’m happy that I started both sets well,” said Swiatek. “I think she used her chances to come back and to win a break. But honestly I felt like, with the way I started, I could always come back to the game I played at the beginning.”

That game consisted principally of an unrelenting attack on Gauff’s forehand, which remains the weakest link in the 18-year-old’s game for the time being. 

Just as Swiatek fell fractionally short of her recent perfect standards in the heat of battle, so her difficulties continued in amusing fashion afterwards. First, she made the unusual request to restart her scrawled camera lens message. Then, as she attempted to explain herself in her on-court interview, revealing that she had wanted to write a note encouraging her father to fly over for the final but couldn’t decide whether to write in Polish or English, she began coughing and croaking.

“I’m pretty happy that tennis is working out, because writing and talking, not my thing right now,” Swiatek quipped. 

Off the court, Swiatek has been suffering with a cold. On it, however, it is her opponents who have been doing the suffering. 

Krejcikova knows she will have her work cut out if she is to complete a perfect sequence of victories over the top three, having already beaten Pegula and Aryna Sabalenka in the previous two rounds. Yet the Czech does not lack belief, and it will be fascinating to see how the final unfolds.

“It’s always a huge challenge [playing Swiatek],” said Krejcikova. “I love challenges. I expect it’s going to be really difficult, because she’s in a great form and she’s playing well. I believe that I’m playing well, as well. 

“I think that I can find a plan that can push her on a back leg. I believe that I have a chance.”

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Yet sport rarely remains predictable for long, and gathering silverware is a far more complicated business than the 21-year-old has made it seem this season. On Sunday, Barbora Krejcikova solved the Swiatek conundrum, although the Czech hardly laid down a template for others to follow. Over the course of a thrillingly unpredictable three hours and 16 minutes, Krejcikova lost five of the first six games, levelled the opening set only to lose it, came within two points of a straight-sets defeat, and then forced a decider in which she eventually prevailed only after Swiatek had saved five championship points. Textbook stuff it was not, but Krejcikova’s epic 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 win – the second-longest of the season – made for an absorbing spectacle. 

“It’s a huge victory,” said Krejcikova. “It was a great match, one of the biggest matches that I ever played, and also with the fans and everything, the atmosphere was just very energetic and unbelievable for both sides. So it’s really one of the top matches that I ever played in my life.”

That is quite a statement coming from the 26-year-old Czech, who won her first major title at Roland Garros last year and completed a career grand slam in doubles alongside her compatriot Katerina Siniakova at the US Open only a few weeks ago. Yet Krejcikova, whose first WTA 500 title followed hard on the heels of last week’s victory in Tallinn, had a point. The win was significant not only for its magnitude, but also for the manner and circumstances in which it was won. 

The Czech had to overcome not only the world’s best player, but also her own inner demons and the unusual challenge of playing on home soil before a raucous crowd that was very much divided in its loyalties. Krejcikova had lost both her previous meetings with Swiatek, the most recent of which came in Rome last year, when she held match points. As Swiatek stubbornly refused to go quietly, the chants of “Iga! Iga! Iga!” that rained down from the stands in the eastern Czech city – which lies close enough to the Polish border to ensure that she enjoyed plentiful support all week – might easily have proved demoralising for Krejcikova. Yet she held firm to avoid another near miss against the reigning French and US Open champion and claim the fifth title of her career. 

“I was just telling myself, ‘Keep going,’” said Krejcikova. “She’s a great champion, she’s a great player, so I was expecting this; she wasn’t going to give it to me easy. So I was like, ‘OK, keep going, it’s going to be fine, you’re going to get your chance, you’re going to make it.’ That was my inner voice.”

Quite what Krejcikova’s inner voice was telling her after she missed a trio of early break points is another matter. The Czech’s ability to redirect the ball and force her opponent into the corners augured well for her challenge, but a combination of boldness and obduracy from Swiatek denied her the first two chances. When Krejcikova then swept a forehand approach long to squander the third, her game abruptly went into a tailspin. It seemed another of the ritual slaughters in which Swiatek specialises was taking shape.

Yet the Pole, who was pushed all the way by Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova in the semi-finals, has not had things all her own way in Ostrava, and for a second successive match she was forced to fight tooth and nail. As Krejcikova began to rediscover her fluency, Swiatek’s level dipped. The Pole recovered, tenaciously fending off three break points at 5-5 to stem the tide before nailing a forehand return winner to seal the set, but Krejcikova refused to buckle. 

The Czech shrugged off the disappointment of seeing an early second-set break cancelled out in the eighth game, held her nerve as she served to stay in the contest at 5-5, 30-30, and established an unassailable 6-1 lead in the ensuing tiebreak with some breath-taking defensive play, scrambling from a seemingly impossible position to steer a pass beyond the bemused Swiatek with the help of the net cord. Swiatek had lost only once in 49 outings this year after winning the opening set, but for once there would be no comeback. Krejcikova broke to love in the eighth game of the decider and, for all Swiatek’s late defiance, she would not be caught.

Swiatek was sanguine in defeat. Only Polona Hercog had previously got the better of her in a final, the Slovenian consigning her to a three-set defeat on the clay courts of Lugano in April 2019, but the Pole recognised that she had contributed richly to one of the season’s best finals. 

“The atmosphere was something that I don’t think I experienced ever,” said Swiatek. “I never saw something like that, honestly. So I’m pretty happy to be part of that, and to play such nice tennis against Barbora. I think we did a really great show so, even though I lost, I feel pretty happy and proud of myself.

“My goal [was] to fight till the end, and for the last ball. I know sometimes how hard it is to close the match. So I didn’t give anything for free. I just wanted to do as best as possible in those circumstances, with all these people, because they also deserve the fight.

“For sure my confidence overall is pretty high after this season, because I really proved [to] myself that I can play in any circumstances.”

In another sign of her determination to make positive use of her platform as the world’s top-ranked player, Swiatek will donate her prize money from the week to a Polish mental health charity. 

Krejcikova, meanwhile, can reflect with satisfaction on a resurgent end to a season marred by the elbow injury that prevented her from mounting a meaningful defence of her French Open title. Having started the year by reaching the Australian Open quarter-finals and attaining a career-high ranking of No 2, the Czech has the air of a woman determined to reclaim her place at the game’s top table.

“For sure my game is improving,” said Krejcikova. “I’m working very hard every day to get better every single time, so I’m just really happy that things are clicking together and I’m improving, and I can play the biggest matches with the biggest players.”

Also improving is Elise Mertens, who won her first title of the season – and seventh in all – at the Jasmin Open in the Tunisian city of Monastir. The Belgian swept aside Alizé Cornet, the third seed, 6-2, 6-0.

“Never stop believing, I guess,” said Mertens. “I have my seventh title.”

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For Osaka, seeking to unlock the unsolved mystery of clay-court tennis at an event where she has yet to advance beyond the third round, a renewal of hostilities with her Australian Open conqueror would not have been uppermost on any wishlist of early tests. 

Anisimova, meanwhile, who was forced to save two match points in that third-round meeting at Melbourne Park, would likewise have hoped for a less onerous assignment than a former world No 1 and four-time slam champion with a score to settle. 

Anisimova, at 28th in the world the higher-ranked player by 10 places, later admitted to feeling “the stress and the nerves”, and it doubtless did little to allay her misgivings that, in Osaka, she faced an opponent cast in the same powerful mould.

But the American knows her way around a clay court and, while she struggled to hit through her opponent, and suffered more than a few anxious moments, she was the sharper and more consistent of the two when it mattered. In the face of some erratic play from Osaka, including no fewer than eight double faults, it was enough to give the 20-year-old a 7-5, 6-4 victory.

“It was a bit unfortunate, because I wasn’t able to play many matches leading into this tournament,” said Osaka, whose build-up to the tournament was curtailed by an Achilles injury that forced her to withdraw from the Italian Open.

“So there were probably some really bad decisions that I made on certain points, but I think overall I wasn’t too bad.

“I think the difference for me was match play, like I only played two matches on clay this year. I wish I could have played more. I stayed in Europe for longer to be able to prepare for this tournament, so it is a bit disappointing.

“But I’m happy with how my attitude was, because the last match that we played in Australia I think I was getting a bit more upset with myself, so I think I progressed in that part.”

Even before the draw, Osaka was approaching the tournament gingerly. That was partly down to her injury, and partly due to uncertainty about how she would be received after the global media maelstrom that followed her decision to shun press duties last year. So when her coach, Wim Fissette, told her she would be facing Anisimova for a second successive slam, Osaka thought he was joking.

Damp, heavy conditions ensured neither player had much cause for merriment in the early stages. After a flurry of early breaks, however, the contest settled into the kind of first-strike pattern one would expect from two of the most unflinching shot-makers in the women’s game. After 10 games, there was nothing to separate the pair. 

Then came a hint of fallibility from Anisimova, who took a high ball that was perhaps flying long and volleyed it into the bottom of the net, to her evident dismay. She has enjoyed a productive few weeks on the red dirt, however, reaching the last four in Charleston and successive quarter-finals in Madrid and Rome, and with the rhythm of regular competition comes an ability to roll with the punches. Instead it was Osaka, lacking match sharpness, who blinked first, a double fault handing Anisimova a crucial break. The American served out the set to love. 

There were would be more wobbly moments for the American, not least when she made errors off either wing to spurn her first two match points as she served at 40-0 in the final game. But she had stuck doggedly to her front-foot game plan throughout, continuing to blast away even as Osaka tried to tailor her play to the conditions with greater margin and spin, and she was not about to back off now. Once again showing the courage of her convictions, she rifled a backhand winner down the line to seal victory.

“When you see Naomi Osaka in the first round, you don’t think it’s going to be easy,” said Anisimova, who will face Donna Vekic of Croatia in the next round. “The conditions were tough today, because of the rain it was very heavy. So I was kind of expecting her to play that way. But I just was trying to stay aggressive and keep going for my flat shots, because that’s what I thought would help me get the win.”

Barbora Krejcikova, the Czech defending champion, swiftly followed Osaka out of the tournament, defeated 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 by Diane Parry of France. Krejcikova, the second seed, had not played since February after suffering an elbow injury. Despite that lengthy layoff, she showed no initial signs of rust, reeling off eight of the first nine games to lead by a set and a break. 

Parry, a gifted 19-year-old ranked 97th in the world, had merely been caught in the headlights. As she belatedly acclimatised to the occasion, the flowing one-handed backhand that had flown long in the early stages began to land with unerring regularity. At the same time, Krejcikova’s game began to misfire.

As the momentum shifted towards Parry, so the crowd began to turn on the Czech, who ill-advisedly left the court for a lengthy change of attire at the end of the second set and was roundly jeered on her return. Krejcikova nonetheless claimed an early break in the decider, but a run of eight successive points put Parry back on level terms, and the former junior world No 1 was the steadier down the home stretch.

“I expected it was going to be difficult, and it was,” said Krejcikova. “I had to start somewhere, so it’s a pity that it had to be here and I didn’t have any other matches.

“I hit the wall. I just collapsed physically. It was tough, because I didn’t play matches. Usually matches are different than practices, and I tried to prepare the best way I could. For sure, I didn’t want to miss this one.”

While Krejcikova, elbow allowing, will now seek to get more matches under her belt in preparation for the grass-court season, Osaka said she may skip Wimbledon following the WTA’s decision to strip the tournament of ranking points.

“The decision is kind of affecting my mentality going into grass,” said Osaka of the WTA’s response to the ban imposed on Russian and Belarusian players by the All England Club following the Putin regime’s invasion of Ukraine. 

“I’m not 100% sure if I’m going to go there. I would love to go just to get some experience on the grass courts, but like at the same time, for me, it’s kind of like – I don’t want to say pointless, no pun intended – but I’m the type of player that gets motivated by seeing my ranking go, stuff like that. I think the intention was really good, but the execution is kind of all over the place.”

Execution was not a problem for Iga Swiatek, the top seed and red-hot favourite for the title, who claimed her 29th win in a row with a 6-2, 6-0 mauling of Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine. But Emma Raducanu, the 12th seed, was made to work hard by Czech qualifier Linda Noskova, battling back from a set down to subdue the 17-year-old girls’ champion 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 6-1 in a battle spanning more than two and a half hours.

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Outwardly, Swiatek’s mindset, honed in collaboration with her psychologist Daria Abramowicz, was that of a seasoned champion: at ease with the cyclical nature of life on tour and fully aware that, come what may, the next big opportunity would come along soon enough.

But while the Pole made all the right noises, did she really believe in what she was saying? After all, barely seven months had passed since she stormed to her first grand slam title as a 19-year-old ranked 54th in the world, and while she arrived in the French capital fresh from a 6-0, 6-0 mauling of Karolina Pliskova in the Italian Open final, she remained a player whose achievements vastly outweighed her experience. That much was evident in the significance she attached to her success in Rome, which followed a title run in Adelaide three months earlier.

“Winning two titles, that was amazing for me, because I’m still not sure if I’m going to be consistent for the rest of my career,” said Swiatek. “This shows that I can perform well not only once, but I can repeat it.” 

Impressive as those victories undoubtedly were, true consistency, the kind that creates a platform for multiple major titles and sustained dominance, takes longer to acquire. Swiatek’s subsequent progress to the Roland Garros quarter-finals, where she was hampered by a thigh injury as she fell to Maria Sakkari in straight sets, emphasised her undoubted pedigree while offering a reminder that no amount of talent can insulate against the natural vicissitudes of life on tour. Anxiety, off days and self-doubt go with the territory. It is the ability to overcome such challenges week in, week out, that defines the great champions, and that comes only with time, familiarity, knowhow.

In the end, Swiatek’s head could not fool her heart: however much she told herself the French Open was just another tournament, she knew it was anything but. “I couldn’t even sleep well yesterday,” she admitted after her defeat. “I slept like a few hours. I think I was feeling everything twice as much as I should. It was hard to rationally just see what’s going on.”

She vowed to learn the lessons of that experience and it is, paradoxically, a measure of how much has changed in the interim that Swiatek goes into this year’s tournament with exactly the same approach she adopted last time. “If I’m going to treat it as any other tournament, I think it’s going to be fine,” said the 20-year-old after defeating Ons Jabeur to complete the defence of her Rome title last week. 

Why replicate an approach that previously failed to yield the desired outcome? Simple: Swiatek no longer needs to don the mantle of the battle-hardened winner in the hope that it will fit, because it now comes tailor-made, hers by right after an astonishing run of 28 consecutive wins and five straight titles. Champion in Qatar, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart and Rome, Swiatek has taken up the baton passed to her by the retired Ashleigh Barty and sprinted away from the chasing pack, making the No 1 ranking her own. 

A notably more aggressive player under Tomasz Wiktorowski, the experienced Polish coach with whom she joined forces at the end of last season, Swiatek returns to Roland Garros an immeasurably more confident and versatile player than the teenager who lifted the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen in 2019. She has shown she can walk the talk, and starts the tournament as a nigh-on unbackable favourite. That she is nonetheless taking nothing for granted only spells further bad news for her rivals. 

“I haven’t played a grand slam since the streak started,” said Swiatek, who will open her challenge against the Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko. “So I guess we’re going to see if everything I have been doing before is going to be enough. But I have really positive thoughts. Honestly, a couple of times during all these tournaments I was already stressed about [maintaining the winning streak], and I was able to work through it and do a really good job by just focusing on tennis. So hopefully I’m going to be able to continue that.”

Given that complacency seems unlikely to stop her, who might? The received wisdom is that Swiatek, who was beaten by Danielle Collins in the Australian Open semi-finals and former Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko in Dubai, might be vulnerable to a big hitter. That should offer some encouragement to Liudmila Samsonova, the powerful 26th-ranked Russian who extended her to a third set in Stuttgart, and with whom she is projected to renew hostilities in round three. 

Also on a potential collision course with the Pole is Ostapenko, the 13th seed, although the Latvian’s form has dipped since February, when she won in Dubai and reached the last four in Doha. If the seedings hold, Ostapenko would first need to get past Simona Halep, another former champion, who has been in renascent form since hiring Patrick Mouratoglou as her coach last month. From there, Swiatek is slated to meet Karolina Pliskova in the last eight, ahead of a potential semi-final against Paula Badosa, the Spanish third seed.

A deep run in Paris would be timely for Badosa, whose progress to the first major quarter-final of her career last year was among the highlights of a breakthrough season that included victory in Indian Wells and a first appearance at the WTA Finals. Despite reaching a career-high ranking of No 2 following Stuttgart, where she was a semi-finalist, the 24-year-old has had a largely underwhelming build-up to Roland Garros. She suffered early exits in Rome and Madrid, and has found it difficult to come to terms with the heightened expectations and scrutiny that accompany her elevated standing.

“It’s a tough situation that I’m learning,” said Badosa, who will face French wildcard Fiona Ferro in her opener. “I just want to try to manage as much as I can these kind of things, because everything is very new, so sometimes I get a little bit scared, and I feel that’s a little bit big for me.  

“What I’m working on, is to try to feel free on court and try to raise my level. I think that when I feel free and I feel calm – of course, I will have nerves –I play well, and I’m competitive. So that’s what I want to try to find here in the French Open.”

Badosa is seeded to face Aryna Sabalenka, her conqueror in Stuttgart, in the last eight. After a difficult few months, the unpredictable Belarusian has shown some form of late, reaching the final in Stuttgart and the semis in Rome. On both occasions she ran into Swiatek, emerging from the two encounters with a collective total of seven games. 

In the bottom half, defending champion Barbora Krejcikova returns from the elbow injury that has kept her out since February with minimal preparation and modest expectations. The Czech second seed starts her campaign against Diane Parry of France, the world No 96. Sloane Stephens, a finalist in Paris four years ago, potentially awaits a couple of rounds later, with Victoria Azarenka or Jil Teichmann, the in-form Swiss 23rd seed, potentially awaiting further down the line. The path to a projected quarter-final against fifth seed Anett Kontaveit looks fraught with hazard.

“I was off for quite a long time,” said Krejcikova, who acknowledged that she may have to rethink her long-term commitment to playing doubles in light of her injury problems. “I didn’t expect it, to be honest. But I’m healthy right now, I’m here, and it’s amazing to start at the place where I won my first slam last year.”

The player to watch in the lower half, however, is Jabeur, the champion in Madrid and a finalist at the Foro Italico, where her 11-match winning streak was broken by Swiatek. A repeat of that contest in Paris would no surprise. The Tunisian sixth seed is seeded to meet Maria Sakkari of Greece, who came within a point of reaching the final last year, in the last eight. She will rightly fear no one.

“I played quite a lot of matches on clay,” said Jabeur. “I feel good. I have always loved Roland Garros. I started by winning the junior tournament here, and it’s a very good memory. I wanted to win as a professional player. I work on a match-per-match basis. I like pressure, I like being one of the favourites in this tournament.”

The problem for Jabeur, as for the rest of the field, is the looming presence of a relaxed and confident Swiatek. 

“I proved to myself and to other people that I can be at the top of the game,” said Swiatek. ”Before, I wasn’t feeling that much confidence. This year, I feel much more peace.”

Swiatek’s calm will be a source of consternation for anyone with ambitions of stopping her.

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