And perhaps that was fitting, for the 31-year-old Frenchwoman, who announced at the weekend that she intends to retire this autumn, has known her share of heartbreak at Roland Garros down the years.

Like any player from a grand slam nation, winning on home soil was always Garcia’s most cherished ambition, but a quarter-final run in 2017 will forever remain an outlier now. 

She had failed to advance beyond the second round on all but three of her previous 15 visits to Paris and, as she waited in the Court Suzanne Lenglen tunnel before facing Bernarda Pera of the United States, the emotions swirling inside were palpable in her dewy-eyed demeanour. 

There were near-identical scenes 90 minutes later, by which time a 6-4, 6-4 defeat had brought the curtain down on her French Open career. Yet Garcia has become accustomed to dealing with such emotions since deciding to bid farewell to a sport that, she said in a social media announcement, had brought extremes of love and hate, happiness and anger.

“Since the start of the year, I knew it would be my last season and my last Roland Garros,” Garcia told the crowd, battling to retain her composure. “I hesitated for a while before telling you, because I didn’t know if I’d be able to deal with my emotions.

“I have to admit that I’ve been crying since the start of the week. But I always played with my emotions – the good ones, the bad ones – and often, the stress and the wish to do things too perfectly stopped me, especially here, in Roland Garros.”

Often, but not always. While capable of losing to players with a fraction of her ability on her off days, at her best Garcia was one of the finest exponents of first-strike tennis in the sport, a player whose all-court ability and natural athleticism made her a match for anyone. The challenge, always, lay in casting aside self-doubt, in ignoring the observers who insisted she should rein in her high-risk, high-reward style.   

Those voices were never louder or more plentiful than at Roland Garros, and it is perhaps unsurprising that Garcia’s finest singles run at a major came not on the Parisian clay, but in the concrete jungle of New York, where she was a semi-finalist in 2022. Garcia would go on to win the WTA Finals that year, equalling a career-best ranking of fourth, but a combination of injuries, faltering form and the sheer grind of life on tour, which diminished her joy for the game, made further progress elusive.

Whatever pain Garcia felt in playing her last singles match at Porte d’Auteuil, it will be as nothing compared to the physical pain she has endured. Earlier this year, she revealed in an emotionally charged social media post how a chronic shoulder injury had left her reliant on anti-inflammatory medications, corticosteroid injections and plasma treatments. She questioned the “mindset that athletes are conditioned into from a young age” that “playing injured is somehow honourable or necessary”, and wondered whether “the victories glorified by society” were really worth the physical toll.

“Is it truly worth pushing our bodies to such extremes?” wrote Garcia. “Is enduring chronic pain in your 40s – an outcome of years spent pushing athletic limits – something to be celebrated, or have we collectively taken sports too far?”

Those questions will have felt all the more urgent against the backdrop of happiness in her personal life. Last summer, Garcia announced her engagement to Borja Duran, a former associate professor at the University of Barcelona with whom she co-founded the Tennis Insider Club podcast. Always an involved presence at Garcia’s matches, Duran will have felt her pre-match show of emotion as keenly as anyone.

Once the racket was in her hand, though, a smile broke across Garcia’s features, one that broadened as sections of the crowd greeted each ball she struck in the warm-up with a cheer. The arena was sparsely populated at that point, most spectators having gone to stretch their legs after watching Carlos Alcaraz open his title defence with a straight-sets victory over the Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieiri, but it was a taste of what lay ahead.

Spare a thought for Pera in all this. With just four wins all season, she could have wished for an easier first-round assignment than Garcia, a player of such abundant gifts that Andy Murray once tipped her as a future world No 1. Yet the 30-year-old Croatian-American went into the match with just one loss from their four previous meetings, and she made the most of that psychological edge.

When Garcia drilled a sumptuous inside-out forehand for a winner to hold in the sixth game, before fashioning her second break point of the afternoon, it seemed the locals were in for a good afternoon. But as chants of “Caro! Caro!” rained down from the stands, Pera refused to be intimidated. On an afternoon when her stinging southpaw serve would prove the bedrock of her game, she staved off the danger to hold, then went firmly on the attack, firing returns from inside the baseline, crushing approach shots and dispatching overheads with calm authority. 

In the ninth game, Pera’s enterprise was rewarded with a brea,k and from there she rode her momentum to serve out the first set and secure an early break in the second. 

Her task was made easier by some understandably sluggish movement from Garcia, who was playing her first match since mid-March and struggled at times to get in and out of the corners with her trademark agility. Still, no amount of pain was going to come between the Frenchwoman and a final crack at her home slam, and what she lacked in explosiveness she did her best to compensate for with her hand skills and anticipation.

Those qualities were never more apparent than when a venomous service return forced Garcia deep into her forehand corner early in the second set. With the ball almost behind her, Garcia somehow improvised a brilliant drop shot, loaded with backspin, then scrambled across the baseline to prod home a lobbed backhand winner with her opponent stranded at the net. That drew a broad grin from Garcia, but it was only her second point in 16, a bleak indication of the direction of travel. 

A pair of unforced errors made it four straight games for Pera and, as mistakes continued to flow from Garcia’s racket, four quickly became six. Roused by the locals at the next changeover, the former world No 4 clawed back one of the breaks with a delicious blend of power and finesse, but Pera’s lead would prove unassailable. 

“It was such an emotional match, even when we were back there [in the tunnel] I started crying,” said Pera. “Caroline is one of the nicest people on tour, and I’m honoured to get to know you and spend time with you and share the court with you.”

The reality remains that, even with her finest tennis of the day, Garcia could do no more than bring respectability to the scoreline – a reminder, if one were needed, of why she has decided to call it a day.

“I tried to give my best here,” said Garcia, handed the stage afterwards by on-court interviewer Alizé Cornet. 

“I always dreamt of winning the trophy. Unfortunately, I will never achieve that goal. But all those great, positive moments, and the difficult moments shared with the French public will stay with me forever.”

As Paris made plain, the feeling is mutual.

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In a tight contest featuring just a single break of serve, Garcia was outstanding. Bidding to bounce back from the disappointment of last season, when she struggled to build on her title win at the previous year’s WTA Finals, the 30-year-old Frenchwoman blasted 34 winners and staged a serving masterclass. Garcia, who dropped just four points behind her first delivery, clinched victory in an hour and 26 minutes without facing a single break point, firing 13 aces and countless service winners. 

Ranked fourth this time last year but now down to 19th, Garcia looks sets fair for a swift return to the top 10 if she can maintain the level she has found in the early weeks of the season. After a 15-month maternity absence, it is Osaka who has more ground to make up. The 26-year-old’s return has naturally attracted huge interest, and for the most part the former world No 1, two of whose four grand slam titles have come at Melbourne Park, acquitted herself well. Yet it was only last July that she gave birth to her daughter, Shai, and much work lies ahead if she is to regain her former movement and sharpness.

“I think I could have done a little bit more – this is my opinion – from baseline shots,” said Osaka, whose inactivity has seen her ranking slip to 831. “I felt like I was constantly on my back foot and really hesitant. I think it might be because I haven’t played matches in a while. I was a little bit overthinking in my head where to go.

“I have to tell myself, ‘Hey, like, six months ago you were pregnant,’ stuff like that. Of course, there’s a voice in my head that is [saying], ‘Who are you to think you can come back and immediately start winning matches?’ I don’t know. I kind of always expect myself to stand a chance anyways. 

“I guess just being nicer to myself is like a key thing that I learned in my time away. But it is really tough to play a good server and not make too many returns.”

Osaka favours a similar brand of first-strike tennis to Garcia, yet her ability to stand inside the baseline and smoke returns like the Frenchwoman was inevitably limited by her footwork. Half a step slow, she made just 15 of her 37 returns – a statistic that Martina Navratilova felt was indicative of where she stands following her comeback performances in Brisbane, where she defeated Tamara Korpatsch before falling to Karolina Pliskova, and now against Garcia in Melbourne.  

“She couldn’t get to the ball that she wants to hit because she’s not in shape,” Navratilova told the Tennis Channel. “I’m surprised that she got on the tour, that she played this tournament, without clearly being in the top shape that she needs to be, in order to put herself in the position to hit the big, big balls. 

“She was stretched out way too much, and the fact that she never had a break point tells you everything you need to know about that match.”

Barely less impressive than Garcia’s serving performance was that of Coco Gauff, the American fourth seed, who earlier battered down a 123mph delivery in a 6-3, 6-0 win over Slovakia’s Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. Gauff travelled to Charlotte, North Carolina during the off-season to seek technical guidance on her serve from Andy Roddick, a fellow US Open champion and one of the finest servers of the open era.

“It was a really good two days,” said Gauff, who will play Caroline Dolehide in round two, of her evidently fruitful work with Roddick. “I think that my serve has improved… I don’t think I could have gotten anybody else better to help me with that.

“I want to become a more aggressive server, and I feel like when my serve is on, I’m playing well. I think it was more of a mental switch. You know, just a slight change that we did, just helping me with the toss, being more consistent. I think mentally, when I have the aggressive serving mindset, that’s when I play my best tennis.”

One player who did not find her best tennis was Marketa Vondrousova, the Wimbledon champion and seventh seed. The 24-year-old Czech became the biggest casualty in the women’s draw so far, falling 6-1, 6-2 to Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska.

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There is no need to reach for the record books just yet, but the manner of the world No 1’s 15th straight triumph, a 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Caroline Garcia that propelled Poland into the final of the United Cup, suggested she will take some stopping when the Australian Open gets underway in a week’s time. It was not so much Swiatek’s level over the final two sets that stood out, impressive though that undoubtedly was, but the mental steel she exhibited to turn around a contest that at one stage seemed to be slipping away. 

After navigating a difficult hold at the start of the second set, frustration began to creep into the 22-year-old’s play. A missed pass drew an angry swish of the racket. Even a successful approach shot was greeted with a perceptible shrug of exasperation, Swiatek having directed her forehand straight back to Garcia with the court at her mercy. When she then nudged an inviting short ball wide, Tomasz Wiktorowski, her coach and the Polish team captain, was sufficiently concerned to rise from his courtside seat and urge her on with an enthusiastic burst of applause.

The reasons for Swiatek’s irritation were plain. A habitual frontrunner, she had won seven of the afternoon’s first eight points only to be denied an early break by a combination of her own mistakes and the quality of Garcia’s bold, first-strike tennis. The manner in which the 20th-ranked Frenchwoman went on to take the lead in the seventh game, creating her first break point of the contest with a horribly mishit winner, then converting it with a searing return to the Pole’s feet, doubtless did little to improve Swiatek’s mood.

So with Garcia a set to the good and serving at 0-1, 40-15, and Swiatek’s fuse gently burning down, the signs were not encouraging for Poland. Sensing as much, the sizeable Polish contingent in the crowd sought to raise her spirits. As chants of “Iga!” rained down, Swiatek bounced on the spot, pulled her cap down low, and set about turning the tide. Garcia overcooked a forehand, Swiatek treated the Frenchwoman to taste of her own medicine by drilling a return at her feet, and two searing backhands later the Pole had the break. Garcia would win only two more games.

“Mentally I knew to make a big adjustment because I was impatient, and sometimes I made bad decisions,” said Swiatek. “I needed to focus a little bit more, because I felt like my mind was kind of going elsewhere.

“Sometimes it’s going to click or sometimes not. But you know, it was 6-1, 6-1, so I would say even though I got my level up, it was all these circumstances that led up to that score. 

“I wouldn’t say I switched it and that was it, because I tried to switch it even in the first set. I just needed some time.” 

Following Hubert Hurkacz’s earlier win over Adrian Mannarino, Swiatek’s victory gave Poland an unassailable 2-0 lead. Katarzyna Kawa and Jan Zielinski subsequently combined to defeat Elixane Lechemia and Édouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 6-3 in the mixed doubles.

It is all a far cry from last year’s semi-final, when Swiatek suffered a tearful straight-sets defeat at the hands of Jessica Pegula as Poland were routed 5-0 by the USA in the inaugural edition of the mixed-team event. Swiatek was grateful for the extra day’s practice time permitted this year following the journey from Perth, where Wiktorowski’s side played their group matches, and relieved to find less of a discrepancy between the surfaces at the two venues (“much more similar than last year, comparing Brisbane to here”).

In Sunday’s final, Poland will face Germany, for whom Angelique Kerber scored a crucial opening win in a 2-1 victory over Australia. The 35-year-old former world No 1, playing her first event in 18 months after giving birth to her daughter Liana last February, saved two match points to defeat Ajla Tomljanovic 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (9-7). 

Alex De Minaur levelled the tie for the host nation with a 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 win over Alexander Zverev, ranked five places above the Australian at seventh in the world, before Zverev made amends by partnering Laura Siegemund to a 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (2-7), 15-13 victory over Matthew Ebden and Storm Hunter in which the German pair saved two match points. 

“I think Poland is the favourite no matter who they play, with Iga and Hubi,” said Zverev, who overcame a bout of cramp late in the climactic mixed doubles. “Iga is basically a cheat code at the United Cup a little bit, or has been so far. Hopefully we can change that tomorrow.”

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Compelling though that narrative may be, however, the grass-court season has produced a more diverse range of champions. Ekaterina Alexandrova won in s’Hertogenbosch. Britain’s Katie Boulter claimed her first tour-level title in Nottingham. Petra Kvitova, twice a Wimbledon winner, was crowned champion in Berlin, while Jelena Ostapenko claimed bragging rights in Birmingham. The big three may have formed a cartel, carving up the past five grand slams between them, but other options are available, certainly on grass.

Whether that trend will continue at the All England Club is another matter. The smart money still says one of Swiatek, Sabalenka or Rybakina will lift the Venus Rosewater dish come the second Saturday. Yet a measure of doubt surrounds all three. 

Sabalenka and Rybakina both come into the tournament looking a little undercooked. After suffering an unexpected defeat to Veronika Kudermetova at the German Open, Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion and world No 2, has played only two competitive matches on grass. Rybakina, meanwhile, still wrestling with the after-effects of a viral infection that forced her to withdraw from the French Open, was beaten by Donna Vekic in Berlin and subsequently pulled out of Eastbourne – hardly ideal preparation for the defence of her Wimbledon title.

As for Swiatek, everything appeared to be going swimmingly as she advanced to the first grass-court semi-final of her career in Bad Homburg. But with the Wimbledon draw in progress, the Polish world No 1 announced she was pulling out of her match against Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti due to “fever and possible food poisoning”. Swiatek has since revealed that she began to feel better later the same day, but her fitness will be the subject of close scrutiny when she faces China’s Zhu Lin on Monday.

Against this backdrop of form and fitness concerns, could the timing be right for an outsider to come up on the rails?

First quarter

Assuming she has indeed made a full recovery, Swiatek looks well placed to improve on her previous best showing in SW19, which came two years ago when she reached the fourth round. The 21-year-old’s performances in Bad Homburg suggested that she has discovered the tactical clarity and belief to do well on grass, qualities she identified as lacking following last summer’s shock third-round defeat to Alizé Cornet, which ended a historic 37-match winning streak. 

Much as she did then, Swiatek arrives at the All England Club with the wind in her sails. Having won a third French Open title in four years earlier this month, she will begin her annual attempt to solve the riddle of Wimbledon’s grass on a run of 10 straight victories, and feeling better about her prospects than she has done at any time since winning the junior event in 2018.

“Last year I felt a lot of pressure here because I was No 1,” said Swiatek. “I feel like this time was the first year where I could just focus on practising and actually learning a lot, so hopefully I’m going to be able to use that in my matches.

“Getting used to the grass was always the tricky part, because when you play well at Roland Garros then you have less time to prepare for Wimbledon. But this year I feel like I’ve done a little bit more than for the past years.”

The path to a fifth grand slam title is not without pitfalls, starting with Zhu, who as the world No 33 is the highest-ranked non-seed in the draw. After reaching the last-16 of a slam for the first time at this year’s Australian Open, the 29-year-old won her maiden title in Thailand. Zhu’s best results have come on hard courts, but wins over Venus Williams and Maria Sakkari this season suggest Swiatek will need to be on her mettle.

Petra Martic, the Croatian 30th seed and a prospective third-round opponent for Swiatek, is a more assured competitor on grass, having reached the fourth round at three of the past five Wimbledons – including last year, when she dispatched Jessica Pegula in round three. Martic, though, must navigate a potentially tricky opener against 18-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova, the rising Czech world No 49, before she can contemplate any giant-killing.

Belinda Bencic, the world No 14 and another last-16 veteran, could await Swiatek in the fourth round, ahead of a projected quarter-final tussle with Coco Gauff, against whom the Pole is unbeaten in seven meetings. If the seedings hold, Swiatek will meet Pegula, the fourth seed, in the last four.

Notable first-round matches in this quarter include an all-American clash between Gauff and Sofia Kenin, the former Australian Open champion, who breezed through qualifying without dropping a set. Equally eye-catching is the meeting of Williams, the 43-year-old five-time champion, and Elina Svitolina, a quarter-finalist earlier this month at the French Open and former world No 3.

Semi-finalist: Swiatek

Second quarter 

Pegula recently offered a bullish assessment of her prospects at a tournament where, like Swiatek, she has struggled to do herself justice.

“I feel good, I feel rested, and I feel like I’ll maybe have my love affair with grass this year,” she told Rennae Stubbs. “I feel like it’s coming.”

Five times a grand slam quarter-finalist – although never at Wimbledon, where she has yet to advance beyond the third round – could Pegula finally be poised for a deeper run? There are grounds for cautious optimism. Last year, the 29-year-old’s build-up to the fortnight was overshadowed by her mother’s near-fatal cardiac arrest. This time around, Pegula is better prepared, having played both singles and doubles at Eastbourne, where she was beaten in the quarter-finals by Gauff. 

A navigable draw augurs well for the New Yorker, who opens against her compatriot Lauren Davis. Liudmila Samsonova, who has taken her the distance in all three of their previous meetings, could turn out to be a banana skin should the pair face each other in round four; Pegula’s only loss to the Russian 15th seed came two years ago at Wimbledon. Beyond that, she is projected to play Caroline Garcia – whom she demolished in the opening round two years ago – for a place in the last four. Garcia, seeded fifth, has won the two most recent of their four meetings.

Also lurking in this section are Kudermetova and Vekic, the 20th seed, who defeated Maria Sakkari and Rybakina on her way to the Berlin final. 

Anett Kontaveit, the former world No 2 who will retire after Wimbledon, opens against Italian qualifier Lucrezia Stefanini.

Semi-finalist: Pegula.

Third quarter

This is where the fun really starts. Rybakina may have come through all three of her meetings with Swiatek this season – most notably at the Australian Open, where she went on to reach her second final in three slams – but the 23-year-old’s path to a Centre Court reunion with the Polish top seed is fraught with hazard. 

The roll call of potential opponents reads like a who’s who of seasoned pros, in-form grass-courters and major champions. Round one: Shelby Rogers, who has won two of their five meetings, including the most recent on the grass courts of s’ Hertogenbosch last summer. Round two: the ever-dangerous Cornet, who would relish the chance to follow up last year’s win over Swiatek with another major upset. Round three: home favourite Boulter, the champion in Nottingham. Round four: one of Jelena Ostapenko, the winner in Birmingham last week, Beatriz Haddad Maia, a former champion in Nottingham and Birmingham, or the German veteran Tatjana Maria, a semi-finalist in SW19 last year. As if that run weren’t onerous enough, Rybakina is slated to face Ons Jabeur in the last eight, in what would be a repeat of last year’s final. 

Yet nothing can be taken for granted in this stacked section of the draw. The sixth-seeded Jabeur, who starts against Poland’s Magdalena Frech, may need to negotiate a tricky last-16 meeting with two-time Wimbledon champion Kvitova. That, in turn, is assuming that Kvitova gets past Karolina Pliskova, a former Wimbledon finalist, in round three. Peril lurks at every turn.

With Sabalenka potentially awaiting in the semi-finals, Rybakina could not have been handed a tougher draw – and the task will be none the easier for the Kazakhstani if she is still grappling with ill-health and injury. Nevertheless, she believes she is prepared.

“For sure people are more focused, more motivated to play against me,” said Rybakina. “It’s a new challenge for me to be a defending champion, but I’m ready for this.”  

She will need to be.

Semi-finalist: Jabeur.

 Fourth quarter

What of Sabalenka’s prospects? Since capturing her long-awaited maiden grand slam in Melbourne at the start of the year, the Belarusian has been a model of consistency. Performing with newfound composure and conviction, she has reached the quarter-finals or better at all but two of the 10 events she has played this season, winning three titles and making a further two finals. 

Had Sabalenka converted the match point she held against Karolina Muchova in the French Open semi-finals, she might even have arrived at Wimbledon as the new world No 1, with the third leg of a calendar year grand slam in her sights.

The big question now, as Sabalenka returns for the first time since reaching the semi-finals two years ago, is how much mental baggage she has brought with her to south-west London after a complicated campaign at Roland Garros. Despite the intense off-court scrutiny she faced in Paris, where she was repeatedly asked about the support of her native Belarus for the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is the crushing nature of her loss to Muchova that will perhaps weigh most heavily.

“That defeat was devastating,” said British TV pundit Annabel Croft. “It will be very difficult to overcome.”

The acid test for Sabalenka, who faces Hungary’s Panna Udvardy in the first round, is likely to come in the last 16, where she is expected to cross swords with Muchova again. The Czech’s all-court game is better suited to grass than clay, and she was enthusing about her prospects at the All England Club within hours of losing to Swiatek in the French Open final. 

“I look forward to playing on the grass, on the fast surfaces, that’s for sure the surfaces I prefer,” said Muchova, who can expect a stern test in her opener against Germany’s Jule Niemeier, a surprise quarter-finalist last year.

A focused and firing Sabalenka will nonetheless take some stopping in the lower half, and already the second seed has moved to ensure that she fits that description. Clearly alive to the likelihood of facing further political questions after the lifting of last year’s ban on Russian and Belarusian, Sabalenka has made it plain from the outset that she will not answer such inquiries.

“I would like to say I’m not going to talk about politics,” Sabalenka told the media on the eve of the tournament. “I’m here to talk about tennis only. Please respect that. 

“If you have any kind of political questions, you can ask the WTA or the tournament. They can send you the transcript of my answers from the previous tournaments.”

Semi-finalist: Muchova.

Semi-finals: Swiatek to defeat Pegula; Jabeur to defeat Muchova.

Final: Swiatek to defeat Jabeur.

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Shortly after midnight, Gaël Monfils had sent local spirits soaring at Roland Garros with an epic five-set set win over Sebastian Baez that ended with the French veteran lying flat on his back on the Parisian clay, weeping uncontrollably. 

But the emotions of the previous evening had barely subsided before Gallic hearts were split asunder by Anna Blinkova, a 24-year-old Russian ranked 56th in the world, who defeated Caroline Garcia, the fifth seed and the home nation’s only genuine hope of a singles champion, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

In an extraordinary finale, Garcia fought desperately to prolong her stay by the Seine, fighting off eight match points from 4-5 down in the decider as she threatened to pull off another wildly unlikely French comeback. Monfils had established the template, recovering from 4-0 down in the final set to subdue Baez, but neither a fiercely partisan crowd nor the incredible attacking bravery of Garcia could divert Blinkova as she homed in on the biggest win of her career. 

“I’m disappointed about the result, and I think I could have played better tennis, but she played very good,” said Garcia. 

“She managed the crowd very well and kept very calm after having so many match points.”

Blinkova might easily have crumbled when Garcia spanked a trio of mighty forehands to deny her as she served for the match for the first time. Yet she knows what it is to defeat Garcia here. Four years ago, Blinkova came from a set down to topple the Frenchwoman at the same stage of the tournament, and she immediately seized a break to give herself a second chance. 

The 11 minutes that followed were desperately fraught. Two double faults, either side of a magnificent forehand pass by Garcia, saw three more match points come and go. Two more opportunities were passed up with errors off her previously reliable backhand. Meanwhile, Garcia twice missed chances to break. Had she done so, it would surely have been a disappointment too far for Blinkova, but it was not a possibility the resolute Russian was willing to entertain. A deep first serve flew off the line, and Blinkova was through to the third round of a major for only the second time.

“I cannot even describe how much it means,” said Blinkova. “Playing on this court, on Philippe Chatrier, it’s been my dream, and to play against a top-five player is always something special. 

“When I won my first round and then my coach told me that I’m going to play against Caroline Garcia on the Philippe Chatrier, I couldn’t think about anything else.

“I was just thinking and dreaming how I will play and how I will win. So it’s a very special day for me. I will probably never forget it. Also, because 7-5 in the third, having so many match points, and very tough end of the match, and I finally did it. It’s an unbelievable feeling.”

Questions were raised afterwards about Garcia’s shot selection and tactics, particularly her decision to keep pressing in the final game, when Blinkova understandably became nervous. Garcia made a whopping 50 unforced errors, and certainly there were times when a more conservative approach might have reaped dividends. 

Yet it was Garcia’s derring-do that enabled her to save the first cluster of match points she faced, and renewed faith in her aggressive instincts has been a key factor in her renaissance over the past 12 months. Ranked 79th this time last year, the 29-year-old has won titles in Warsaw, Cincinnati and at the WTA Finals, all by playing bold, first-strike tennis. It is a fine line she walks, but Garcia has never been one simply to push the ball back into play and wait for a mistake. Her chief disappointment afterwards was that she hadn’t gone after her shots with greater conviction. 

“I know what I have to do on court, but then I get afraid that I will not make it, that I will fail in unrolling my game plan,” said Garcia. “I start to make mistakes. Then my balls are too short on my opponent. It’s tough to lose after playing like this.

“It’s a dilemma that I shouldn’t even have. Had I needed more evidence after last year’s season, I shouldn’t need any more. What I mean is that I could have winners, and on the flip side I can also make unforced errors.  

“Sometimes when I’m on the court, I don’t dare go to the net. I don’t dare pummel through my balls. And the greatest regret I have is that I don’t up my game when I should.  When I won in the past, then I would actually go to the net, I would actually take the balls even when they are short. That means that I actually seized all the opportunities when they were there.  

“But this is not the case here. My backhand is bad. Everything is bad. And this is what is tough to digest right now.”

These are difficult times for French tennis. With 11 players ranked in the top 100, the depth in the men’s game is there, but no one has yet assumed the mantle of Monfils and Richard Gasquet, both of whom are former top-10 players and grand slam semi-finalists. The pick of the bunch right now is Ugo Humbert, the 24-year-old French No 1, who is ranked 40th in the world and lost in straight sets on Wednesday to Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego.

Garcia aside, things are little better on the women’s side, where France has just four top-100 players. In fairness, the cavalry may be coming, not least in the shape of a pair of former junior world No 1s: Diane Parry, a richly gifted 20-year-old, and Clara Burel, 22, who reached the semi-finals in Strasbourg last week. For the men, the charge is led by 18-year-old Arthur Fils and Luca Van Assche, 19. Both are ranked in the top 100, and both were been beaten this week by Spain’s Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. For the time being, though, the French production line has stalled.

There was further bad news for the French game late on Wednesday night when Monfils withdrew from the tournament with a wrist injury. The 36-year-old was scheduled to face Holger Rune, the sixth seed, in the night session. Monfils said he had recovered well after battling through cramp to defeat Baez, but was advised to pull out following medical evaluation of damage to the triangular fibrocartilage complex, an area of ligaments and cartilage that attaches the forearm to the wrist.  

“I was quite happy this morning, I woke up quite good,” said Monfils. “But I have the problem with my wrist that I cannot solve. I felt it during the whole match.

“The doctor said it was not good to play with that type of injury. Yesterday was actually very risky, and then today definitely [he said] I should stop.

“I’m not really sure what I feel, but it’s more than being disappointed. How many [more] Roland Garroses will I play? That’s the question. I don’t know what the answer is. How many will I play?”

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Five days ago, Alcaraz staged a masterclass in Indian Wells to dismantle Daniil Medvedev in slow, windy conditions in the final of Indian Wells. In Miami, on a day when the heat and humidity were such that Ons Jabeur, the women’s fourth seed, needed medical attention as she laboured to an early defeat, Alcaraz simply picked up from where he left off in southern California. Never mind the slicker courts. Never mind the quicker balls. If Alcaraz is to retain the world No 1 ranking he regained from Novak Djokovic last weekend, nothing less than a successful title defence will do. The 19-year-old looked intent on doing just that.     

“I feel great for my first match here, getting used to these conditions,” Alcaraz told the Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj. 

“I feel prepared for this week. I had some days off [after Indian Wells] to take a rest a little bit. Of course, I practised twice here before I started the tournament. After this match, it’s a perfect start. I feel ready for this tournament.

“For me, it’s a totally different tournament [in terms of] conditions. Here there is more humidity, the court is faster. I have to be ready and get used to this court and these conditions. I would say I’m a guy who adapts his game very well, but it’s tough to get used to different conditions like this.”

It did not appear overly tough as Alcaraz rattled off 11 straight points at the start of the match, eventually wrapping up the opening set in just 23 minutes after not dropping a single point on serve. Time and again, the Spaniard’s weighty returns materialised at Bagnis’s feet almost before the hapless world 100 had even completed his service motion. The Argentinian was never allowed to get comfortable in the baseline exchanges, the ball whirring up around his shoulders or hurtling into faraway corners with such dispiriting frequency that, when he finally held serve in the ninth game of the match to make a belated appearance on the scoreboard, he hurled his racket skywards in celebration. There was more joy for Bagnis in the next game as Alcaraz, his focus momentarily wavering, dropped serve to love. Predictably, it proved short-lived.

Elsewhere in the men’s draw, ninth seed Taylor Fritz advanced to a third-round meeting with Denis Shapovalov courtesy of a 6-4, 6-1 win over Emilio Nava, a 21-year-old American wild card ranked 182nd. Alexander Zverev was an early casualty, however, the former world No 2 committing 32 unforced errors as he fell 6-0, 6-4 to Taro Daniel of Japan.

“In the first set he was struggling and I just didn’t want to let him get his rhythm back,” said Daniel. “Sometimes it’s a matter of letting them keep playing badly. It’s a little bit of a dirty fight.”

The biggest shocks were reserved for the women’s draw, where Jabeur, the fourth seed, was once again an early casualty following last week’s loss to Marketa Vondrousova in Indian Wells. The Tunisian, continuing her return from knee surgery was beaten 6-2, 6-2 by Russian qualifier Varvara Gracheva, the world No 55.

“The plan was, of course like all matches, to be as stable as possible, to try to make her work as much points as possible, and of course wait for comfortable ones to attack,” said Gracheva following her third top-10 win of the season.

Caroline Garcia, the fifth seed and WTA Finals champion, was beaten 6-2, 6-3 by Sorana Cirstea. The Romanian world No 74 also defeated her in Indian Wells. 

Bianca Andreescu, the former US Open champion, won an epic contest against Maria Sakkari, taking down the seventh seed 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in a contest spanning three hours and four minutes. 

“I think it’s just another step in gaining most of my confidence back,” said Andreescu, whose career has been blighted by injuries since her victory at Flushing Meadows in 2019. “I’m feeling really good on the court. 

“I’m trying to be as fearless as I can be. It’s not always easy, but I feel like I’m getting there, and wins like this obviously help with that because at this point I think it’s just me getting matches in and playing tough rounds like this and knowing I can win.”

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After fighting her way back from a set down in three consecutive rounds, Swiatek found her stride at the sharp end of the tournament and soon found herself hoisting a trophy again, brushing aside Maria Sakkari in the final to win a second tournament in a row. With her 11th straight victory, she rose to No 2 in the world for the first time, joining Agnieszka Radwanska as the highest-ranked Polish player in history. Life, it seemed, could not get any better. 

Except it did. Days later, Ashleigh Barty retired and Swiatek was crowned No 1. She marked the occasion by winning the Miami Open. Then came titles in Stuttgart, Rome and, in Paris, a second grand slam title. By the time she was finally beaten by Alizé Cornet in the third round of Wimbledon, she had accumulated 37 consecutive wins, equalling the longest winning streak since 1990. Before the year was out, she would add the US Open and San Diego titles to her burgeoning collection. It was a season for the ages.

But if 2022 was all about winning, this year is about dealing with the fallout from all that success. It is a task that runs significantly deeper than just defending points. What does success even look like, when you’ve already achieved so much? 

It is a brave new world, a reality brought home to Swiatek following her recent tear through the Middle Eastern swing. After an emphatic title defence in Doha, where she conceded just five games in three matches, the 21-year-old advanced to the final of the season’s first WTA 1000 event in Dubai, where she fell one match short of perfection against Barbora Krejcikova. Twelve months ago, Swiatek’s run would have been greeted with universal acclaim; now, the merest hint of vulnerability becomes a talking point. Such is the lot of the world’s top-ranked player. 

“Being No 1, I didn’t even dream about it, because I thought it’s not possible,” said Swiatek. “So it’s something that is totally over my expectations, and it’s a place where anyone would want to be. But for sure, it comes with a lot of pressure and expectations. 

“For example, after Doha and Dubai I felt it pretty strongly, because I won a WTA 500 and then I was in the final of a 1000, and it was like a small streak of matches that were pretty solid and I was really composed. But still I lost in a final, and people were surprised, slash not happy with the performance, slash just critical. 

“And it made me think that last year, before this huge streak, before winning all these tournaments, I would be so happy with the result. But because of these comments right now, I felt like, ‘Ooh, that’s not enough,’ you know. 

“So I’m trying not to read a lot of these things and I don’t want it to influence me, because I’m happy with the work I’ve [done] and how I played in Doha and Dubai. But this is an example of how people’s attitude changed a little bit, and I don’t think it’s a positive change.”

Positive change is an area in which Swiatek is well versed. Her semi-final run at last year’s Australian Open, an early indication of the hard-court highs to come, was underpinned by a newfound willingness to combine her defensive skills with a more aggressive approach. This year, after losing early in Melbourne to Elena Rybakina, she again changed tack to telling effect, retreating to Warsaw to refine her technique and reset her mind. In Indian Wells, where she will open her title defence against Claire Liu, a 22-year-old Californian ranked 56th, Swiatek will seek to implement the tactical lessons gleaned from her loss to Krejcikova in Dubai. 

“From every match I can take different stuff, because sometimes you make technical mistakes, and it’s pretty easy then, because you go and you work on that, and it’s getting better usually,” she said. 

“Sometimes it’s tactical, so it depends. But it’s always about analysing and about approaching another tournament with the knowledge that you gained. 

“For example, after Australia I knew technically what I had to change and my coach also knew, so we just worked in a really physical way on court for a couple of hours a day to make it better. But I think in Dubai it was more tactical, so from every defeat I can take a lot – and I’m using that knowledge, for sure.”

Given her draw, Swiatek is likely to need every advantage at her disposal. The third round could pit her against Bianca Andreescu, the 32nd seed and former US Open champion, while her projected last-16 opponent is Beatriz Haddad Maia, the powerful Brazilian who defeated her at the Canadian Open last autumn. Awaiting in the quarter-finals, if the seedings hold, will be Caroline Garcia, the French fifth seed. Garcia, a finalist in Lyon and Monterrey already this season, scored a memorable win over Swiatek at the Poland Open last summer, although she has struggled in the past to bring her formidable array of attacking skills to bear in the slow, often blustery conditions at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

With Ons Jabeur, the fourth seed, and Rybakina, the Wimbledon champion, both returning from injury, Victoria Azarenka could emerge as the chief threat to Swiatek’s title defence in the second quarter. Twice a champion in the California desert – and runner-up to Paula Badosa in a thrilling three-set final two years ago – Azarenka knows the course and distance better than most. First, though, the Belarusian must navigate her way through a potentially tricky opener against the gifted and versatile Karolina Muchova.

Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, has only once advanced as far as the fourth round but, despite her protestations to the contrary, there was little sign of her struggling to bring her power to bear against Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina. 

“It was tricky game, I would say,” said Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion, after opening her challenge with an impressive 6-2, 6-0 victory. “I didn’t expect her to play that slow. I was struggling a little bit with adjusting [to] the balls, because it was super slow. Super happy with this win.”

Elsewhere in the bottom half, Sakkari took advantage of a rain delay to fight back from a set down against Shelby Rogers. The Greek, seeded seventh, claimed her first win in four meetings with Rogers, who struggled with a calf injury in the final set, 2-6, 6-4, 6-0. Projected to meet Jessica Pegula in the quarter-finals, Sakkari acknowledged that she will need to improve markedly if she is to make a second successive final.

“My level is nowhere near where I want it to be, but I’m OK with that and I’m going to work on it every single day in this tournament,” said Sakkari. “Obviously there is a little bit of pressure because I did well last year, but I just want to spend as much time as I can here.”

Pegula, the third seed, likewise came from a set down, seeing off Italy’s Camila Giorgi 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. The American remains the favourite to come through the third quarter but, on current form, Krejcikova looks like the player most likely to upset the applecart in the bottom half. The Czech, who got her campaign up and running with a 6-1, 6-2 over Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska, could face Sabalenka in round three.

Semi-final predictions: Swiatek to beat Azarenka; Pegula to beat Krejcikova.

Final prediction: Swiatek to beat Pegula.

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Good enough to defeat Ons Jabeur at the French Open last year, good enough to make the third round of all four majors and reach a career-high ranking of 33, her ability was never in doubt. Yet Linette, the Polish world No 45, was never quite able to take the next step, top-30 status eluding her as stubbornly as a place in the second week of a grand slam.

All that has changed at the Australian Open, where Linette pulled off a stunning 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 victory over Caroline Garcia, the fourth seed and WTA Finals champion, to claim a place in the quarter-finals. No one would have predicted she would be the last Pole standing, but defeats for her United Cup team-mates Iga Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz have left the 30-year-old as the lone standard bearer for her country, and how she has earned it. 

“I’ve been in third rounds so many times that I knew I’m capable,” said Linette. “I think it was more frustrating than that I would wonder or worry about it.”

There was certainly plenty of frustration for Garcia, who led by a double break early in the opening set and later served for it. When the Frenchwoman is in full flight, her unflinching commitment to attack is thrilling to behold. But Garcia can also be her own worst enemy and, on a day when she sprayed 33 unforced errors, her refusal to entertain a Plan B was glaring.

“She played a great match, and obviously I made some mistakes, and that hurt,” said Garcia, who capped a resurgent summer last year by making her first grand slam semi-final at the US Open. 

“I need a little time. It’s a very fresh loss. It’s always hurting and always tough to go through.”

Take nothing away from Linette, though, who showed tremendous fortitude to absorb the early punishment meted out by Garcia and work her way back into the contest. The Pole is an outstanding athlete and a fine ball-striker, particularly off her preferred backhand wing, from which she produced some stunning winners. Yet it was her equilibrium in the face of Garcia’s aggressive, early returns and incessant net-rushing that set the pair apart down the home straight. 

As the Frenchwoman raged at her lack of consistency, swatting the court with her racket as her forehand flew long and her first serve stats dropped to a meagre 44%, Linette was a study in composure. It is an area she has been working hard on since last summer, and she has reaped the dividends in Australia, earning fine wins over Jil Teichmann and Lucia Bronzetti at the United Cup and beating a trio of seeds in Melbourne, where she has also accounted for Anett Kontaveit and Ekaterina Alexandrova.

“We worked a lot [on] my emotional management,” said Linette, who will Karolina Pliskova, a 6-0, 6-4 winner over China’s Shuai Zhang, in the last eight. “Dealing with losses, but not necessarily match losses, just [mid-match] losses, small mistakes here and there. I think I’ve never really deal with them very well. They carried over later on for next point, then another one. It was taking me just too long to get over them. 

“This approach of really trying to look [at things] a little bit differently, grow up a little bit emotionally, was a big thing.”

Another player who has been doing things differently is Aryna Sabalenka, the fifth seed, who remains unbeaten in 2023 after firing 32 winners as she came through 7-5, 6-2 against Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic. 

“I’m just trying to stay calm on court and just wait for the opportunities,” said Sabalenka.

The Belarusian will face Donna Vekic in the quarter-finals after the Croatian defeated the Czech teenager Linda Fruhvirtova 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.

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With her delicate touch and vast repertoire of spins and angles, Jabeur has become synonymous with the unpredictable. For once, though, the 28-year-old was forced to work from a more limited toolbox. Having shaken off a slow start to establish a 4-1 lead, Jabeur began spraying balls long and wide at an alarming rate; by the end of the set, she had amassed a remarkable 31 unforced errors. Her difficulties were compounded by the tireless Zidansek, who utilised her outstanding defensive skills and relentless consistency to inflict all manner of torment on her increasingly frustrated opponent. 

Had the Slovenian converted one of the three set points she held in the first-set tiebreak, the outcome might have been very different. Instead, Zidansek was forced to stew on those missed chances for a further eight games, at which point she converted the first break point of the second set. That gave the former French Open semi-finalist the platform she needed to level the contest. Having done so, however, she became inexplicably error-prone as Jabeur, belatedly realising it was a day for progressing rather than impressing, pushed for the line.

“It was a tough match,” said Jabeur, who played down concerns about the strapping on her right knee. “Just not the way I wanted to play. But I kept fighting. 

“Frustrating to lose the second set, but I think I got the time to think and talk to myself more. The third set was really great.”

Elsewhere in the lower half of the women’s draw, Aryna Sabalenka advanced with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Tereza Martincova of the Czech Republic. Sabalenka, the fifth seed and champion in Adelaide 10 days ago, is bidding for a grand slam breakthrough after reaching the biggest final of her career at last year’s WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas.  

“The only thing I can say is that I’m really working hard,” said Sabalenka. “Physically, mentally, I’m ready to go deep.”

Also through is Caroline Garcia, the fourth seed and WTA Finals champion, who brushed aside the Canadian qualifier Katherine Sebov 6-3, 6-0. Garcia will face Leylah Fernandez in round two after the former US Open finalist came through 7-5, 6-2 against Alizé Cornet.

“It’s a good challenge,” said Garcia. “I will have to play my best tennis for sure.” 

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So Swiatek set out to prove herself all over again. And when she fell short of her own stratospheric standards, first at the Tokyo Olympics and then at the WTA Finals in Guadalajara a few months later, she wept inconsolably. At which point, a sense of shame set in.

“I was worried how people would see me,” Swiatek wrote in a moving and eloquent essay for the Players’ Tribune published on the eve of the Australian Open. “I was ashamed that I did that and thought it was not the way a champion should be.”

Yet it is in such moments that champions are often forged. Those low points encouraged Swiatek to target greater consistency, not only between the lines but between the ears. She wanted to be more settled, more trusting of herself. Swiatek would go on to compile a historic 2022, embarking on the longest winning streak in 32 years, claiming the French and US Open titles, and in the process establishing a vice-like grip on the top ranking. Above all, perhaps, the 21-year-old learned not to dwell on external perceptions.

“If there is some secret to my success in the last year, it’s giving myself that freedom to not care what people think,” said Swiatek. “That’s what led me to winning another grand slam and the third one. That’s what led me to No. 1. Letting go. 

“When I have moments now where I feel a little bit insecure, that’s what I remind myself of.”

As she opens her challenge for a first Australian Open title against Germany’s Jule Niemeier on Monday, letting go may just prove the most potent weapon in Swiatek’s formidable arsenal. The Pole, whose run to the last four at Melbourne Park last year offered early evidence of the newfound aggression that would propel her to hard-court success in Qatar, Indian Wells, Miami and New York, has not enjoyed the smoothest build-up to the season’s first slam. There were tears following an unexpected defeat to Jessica Pegula at the United Cup in Sydney, followed by concerns over a shoulder injury that prompted her withdrawal from this week’s WTA 250 event in Adelaide. 

Under the circumstances, Swiatek might have wished for a simpler first-round assignment. The 68th-ranked Niemeier was beaten in qualifying by Karolina Pliskova in Adelaide this week, but she was a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon last summer and led Swiatek by a set and a break when the pair met at Flushing Meadows in September. As that contest demonstrated, there will be no place for inhibition. 

“You saw how intense that match was, how tough,” mused Swiatek. “It’s not going to be easy. But on other hand, any match in a grand slam is always more intense and more stressful than other tournaments. I’ll be ready for it. It’s nice also that we played not so long ago, so I can take a lot from that match. Now I know how her ball feels on the racquet. But she has the same, so we’ll see.”

Should Swiatek advance, she could face the winner of an enticing first-round meeting between former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu and Marie Bouzkova, the Czech 25th seed, before a last-16 reunion with Danielle Collins, the combative American who rolled over her in last year’s semi-finals.

Swiatek is not oblivious to the danger, especially in a quarter that also features Elena Rybakina, the Wimbledon champion, and Qinwen Zheng, the rising Chinese star who briefly discomfited her at Roland Garros last summer. Lurking too are Jelena Ostapenko and Coco Gauff, the champion in Auckland last week, whom Swiatek is expected to face in the last eight. Yet the Pole, who was beaten by Beatriz Haddad Maia and Madison Keys in the prelude to last year’s US Open, has grown accustomed to competing with a target on her back.

“After I won Roland Garros again last year, I hoped I would be able to play without pressure,” said Swiatek. “But in Toronto and Cincinnati, I realised how hard it is to be world No 1 when every player wants to beat you. They’re playing their best tennis against you.”

If everyone ends up where they are expected to, Swiatek will face an intriguing rematch with Pegula in the semi-finals. A few months ago, Pegula might have approached such a showdown with trepidation. The 28-year-old American was beaten on all four occasions the pair met last year, a run that included grand slam quarter-final defeats in Paris and New York. When she was asked, after her victory at the Guadalajara Open last October, if she would be part of the conversation at the majors in 2023, she quipped: “Hopefully, as long as I don’t play Iga in the quarter-finals.” Yet recent events may have shifted her mindset. There is nothing quite like a 6-2, 6-2 victory for restoring confidence.

It is too early to know whether Pegula’s dominant win over Swiatek at the United Cup will alter the trajectory of their rivalry. What we do know is that the New Yorker thrives on incremental improvements, rapidly consolidating her progress and moving on to the next challenge once a goal has been achieved. Witness her steady rise up the rankings since cracking the top 100 in February 2019, or the way that a first major quarter-final at Melbourne Park in 2021 was followed by three more last year. Having proved to herself that she has the level to match Swiatek, Pegula will know that a repeat is well within her capabilities. 

First, though, she must get to the semi-finals – something she yet to achieve at a slam. If the seedings pan out, that would involve a fourth-round revenge mission against Petra Kvitova – who defeated her in straight sets at the United Cup and went on to claim an impressive win over Rybakina in Adelaide – followed by a meeting with Maria Sakkari, the Greek sixth seed. Intriguingly, Sakkari has won four of their six previous contests – although not the most recent, which came last year at Melbourne Park.

Another woman who can lay claim to the distinction of a relatively recent victory over Swiatek is Caroline Garcia, the fourth seed. A brilliant win over the Pole on the clay courts of Warsaw, in what was arguably the match of the season, came midway through a stellar summer that brought three titles on three different surfaces. Those wins, in Bad Homburg, Poland and Cincinnatti, were followed by a first major semi-final at the US Open and, in November, victory at the season-ending WTA Finals, the biggest triumph of her career. Handed a relatively kind draw that could potentially see her pitted against Russia’s Daria Kasatkina in the quarter-finals, Garcia will take some stopping if she can sustain the momentum of the past six months.

“It’s obviously a new season, and I can keep all the positive of what happen last year, all the improvement I made – the mentality, the mindset – and then start to work from that to [see] where can I go, what can I reach,” said Garcia, who opens against Katherine Sebov, the Canadian world No 191 and qualifying conqueror of Adelaide finalist Linda Novoska, in round one.

If Garcia is to eclipse her run at Flushing Meadows she may have to find a way past Ons Jabeur, who comfortably outplayed her in New York. The gifted Tunisian, seeded second, is bidding to land her first grand slam title after reaching finals at Wimbledon, where she lost out to Rybakina, and the US Open, where she was unable to halt the Swiatek juggernaut. 

“I will try to use that experience from last year, because it was kind of tough,” said Jabeur. “My goal is to not lose any more finals, but just use that to be ready for the next one. 

“I feel like there is not a lot of pressure on me on this tournament. I’m just going to try to play my game, just be there match by match, see what’s going to happen.”

One thing that could happen is Aryna Sabalenka, whom Jabeur is seeded to face in the last eight. The mighty Belarusian finished last season on a high note, reaching the US Open semi-finals for the second year in a row before taking down Swiatek in three sets to make the title round at the WTA Finals. 

Sabalenka, seeded fifth, cut a swathe through the draw in Adelaide last week to land her first title since the 2021 Madrid Open, and the 24-year-old will feel she is overdue a breakthrough after losing appearances in her three previous grand slam semi-finals. She has also shown formidable mental strength to battle through the serving problems that led to 428 double faults last year. Could she be on the verge of something big?

“You never know,” said Sabalenka. “I just feel that I’m ready to show my best and I’m ready for a big fight. That’s everything I feel right now.”

It is likely to be the minimum requirement for anyone with ambitions of stopping Swiatek.

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