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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On an afternoon when a trophy the Belarusian world No 1 coveted slipped through her fingers, it felt like a metaphor.

Two hours earlier, Coco Gauff had been little more than a bystander at her own execution. A devastating early onslaught from Sabalenka had propelled her to a 4-1, 40-0 first-set lead, and she looked poised to take a significant stride towards a career grand slam by adding a maiden Roland Garros title to her US and Australian Open victories. 

Instead, in an echo of her win over Sabalenka at Flushing Meadows in 2023, Gauff rose from the canvas to mount an improbable comeback, hustling, chasing and counterpunching her way to a 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-4 triumph and a second grand slam title. At 21, she becomes only the second American woman this century to triumph in Paris, following in the footsteps of Serena Williams, who was a year younger when she won the first of her three titles in 2002.

It was not a day for the aesthetes – the conditions saw to that – and Gauff later acknowledged the utilitarian nature of her performance. But winning ugly is still winning and, for a player once coached by Brad Gilbert, who famously authored a book on that very subject, the end more than justified the means. 

While Sabalenka fretted and fussed about the wind and her own inconsistency, Gauff simply played her tennis when she could, and scrapped, scurried and made balls whenever her opponent’s sporadic periods of excellence did not allow her that luxury. It was enough. 

“I’m just really happy with the fight that I managed,” said Gauff. “Today wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done and that’s all that matters.”

Just how deeply it mattered became clear after two hours and 38 minutes, when a final Sabalenka backhand flew wide, signalling the conclusion of a scrappy, emotionally fraught contest that swung back and forth as violently as the windblown flags above Court Philippe Chatrier. Gauff fell to the court on her back, her body convulsed with emotion, her mouth agape, before rising to embrace Sabalenka. 

Making her way to the opposite end, she then sank to her knees on the clay, making a heart gesture as she looked up at her parents, Candi and Corey, before joining them in the stands. Perhaps the most touching moment came when her father, his eyes welling, tenderly wiped the clay from her clothes and face in preparation for the trophy ceremony.

There were tears too back on court, where Sabalenka cut a distraught figure as she sat in her chair trying to make sense of it all. For a fortnight, she had looked every inch the world’s best player. She cruised into the semi-finals without dropping a set, dispatching the Olympic champion Qinwen Zheng along the way, and then did what no one else has been able to do since 2021 by defeating Iga Swiatek, a four-time champion on the Parisian clay. But after her early dominance, she slowly began to implode. 

If the 70 unforced errors with which Sabalenka finished the afternoon were alarming, even more so was the manner in which she unravelled mentally in the face of an obdurate opponent and a troublesome breeze that, as Gauff later explained, was hard to hit through from one end but mae the ball fly from the other. When Sabalenka won her first major title at the Australian Open in 2023, it seemed she had finally tamed her combustible nature. But she has now lost three of the six major finals she has contested, and here she reverted to old habits, her features all too often torn with anguish as she bellowed at her team and railed against the elements. 

To her credit, she gathered herself sufficiently to make a fight of the decider, recovering from a break down to square proceedings at 3-3 and continuing to give everything even when another error-strewn service game put Gauff back in the driving seat. It made for a tense finale, but it was too little, too late. 

Sabalenka ripped an audacious forehand return winner to save a first championship point, but was taken by surprise as Gauff attempted to convert a second, the wind holding up the American’s looped forehand as it looked to be sailing long. As the ball nosedived sharply on to the baseline, Sabalenka could only prod back a weak reply; her fate was sealed. If her frustration was understandable, particularly given that Gauff had been helped on her way by a mishit forehand earlier in the same game, her reluctance to give proper credit to her opponent was less so.

“Honestly, guys, this one hurts so much, especially after such a tough two weeks, playing great tennis, and in these terrible conditions, showing such terrible tennis in the final, that really hurts,” Sabalenka said after fighting back tears.

It was an honest admission of how she felt in the moment, but also a notable departure from the usual practice of congratulating the champion and her team first. Sabalenka went on to congratulate Gauff as the better player on the day, but later doubled down on her initial analysis, placing the blame for her defeat on the wind and her own poor play. She also emphasised the American’s good fortune. 

“Conditions were terrible and she simply was better in these conditions than me,” said Sabalenka. “I think it was the worst final ever played.

“Honestly, sometimes it felt like she was hitting the ball from the frame and somehow, magically, the ball lands in the court and you’re kind of on the back foot. It felt like a joke, like someone from above was just staying there laughing and, you know, ‘Like, let’s see if you can handle this’ – and I couldn’t today.

“I think she won the match not because she played incredible, just because I made all of those mistakes.”

If it seemed a slightly churlish assessment, the 27-year-old’s portrayal of herself as her own worst enemy was accurate. It was Flushing Meadows 2023 all over again, with Sabalenka frequently on top in the baseline exchanges only to be undone by Gauff’s defensive resilience and her own inconsistency. 

The ultimate outcome was barely imaginable after the first five games. Sabalenka set the tone with an emphatic opening service game that included a second serve ace, a pair of teasing drop shots and the same irresistible combination of depth and power off the ground that had toppled Swiatek. 

But as the initial onslaught subsided and her errors became more frequent, the variety vanished from Sabalenka’s game. It flickered back to life briefly at the business end of the first set, the Belarusian reeling off four straight points from 3-5 down in the tiebreak with a blend of power and finesse. But by that point, Gauff had started to believe. Win or lose, she was ready to fight.

“After I lost the first set, I told myself, like, I’ll just give it my all and, you know, if I lose this match then at least I can say I gave it all out there, and I’ll go home and I’ll see my boyfriend,” said Gauff. “I’ve been telling myself that every day. 

“Obviously I’d love to be here and I’d love to win, but sometimes you realise, you know, if you lose, whatever – well, not whatever, I hate losing – but you know what I mean, you go home and you reset. 

“So today when I lost that first set I tried not to put too much pressure on the match and I think it worked – I was able to loosen up after that and play a little bit freer.”

As a double grand slam champion, Gauff can look to the future with a little more freedom too. From the moment she defeated Venus Williams at Wimbledon as a 15-year-old, she has lived with the pressure of suffocating expectation; six years on, she can rest secure in the knowledge that, even at this early stage in her career, that youthful promise has been fulfilled.

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But Iga Swiatek was dethroned in humbling fashion at Roland Garros on Thursday, Aryna Sabalenka ending the Polish defending champion’s remarkable 26-match winning run on the Parisian clay with a 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 6-0 victory as she advanced to the French Open final for the first time. 

Throughout her reign of terror in the French capital, Swiatek has often swept through sets without dropping a single game in a set – the dreaded “bagel”, as it is known in tennis parlance.

Jokes about “Iga’s Bakery” have been plentiful, but for once it was the 24-year-old who had too much on her plate, Sabalenka producing near-perfect tennis to dominate the decider so thoroughly that she dropped just six points and, remarkably, made no unforced errors.

“Six-love, what can I say?” said Sabalenka. “It couldn’t be more perfect than that.” 

Indeed not. It was a brutal exhibition of power tennis from the Belarusian world No 1, who began the afternoon in commanding vein, blasting her way into an early 4-1 lead, and ended it equally emphatically after being drawn into a more protracted battle. Through to a third straight grand slam final, a feat last achieved by Serena Williams in 2016, Sabalenka will face second seed Coco Gauff on Saturday with a fourth major title – and first away from the hard courts she favours – firmly in her sights.

“It’s going to mean everything to me and my team, because I have to say that almost my whole life, I’ve been told the clay court is not my thing, and then I didn’t have any confidence,” said Sabalenka. 

“In the past, I don’t know how many years, we’ve been able to develop my game so much, so I feel really comfortable on this surface and actually enjoy playing on clay.”

It didn’t always look like Sabalenka was having fun, particularly when she was unable to convert points for a 5-1 lead. Determined to take the contest by the scruff of the neck, she achieved that ambition early on with a combination of irresistible serving and deep, bludgeoned returns that landed at Swiatek’s feet almost before she had completed her service motion. On a drizzly day in Paris, the closed roof on Court Philippe Chatrier seemed to play into the 27-year-old’s hands, allowing her free rein to take on her shots unencumbered by the swirling wind outside.

But as Swiatek chiselled her way back into contention, moving inside the baseline, showing greater aggression on the return, and belatedly landing her first serve with greater frequency, Sabalenka made plain her frustration, muttering to herself furiously and casting dark looks towards her team. Swiatek levelled at 4-4 before a late exchange of breaks brought up a tiebreak. The Belarusian bossed the shootout, but now she knew she was in a match.

Though down a set, Swiatek could draw encouragement from the knowledge that she had navigated a similar challenge two rounds earlier against Elena Rybakina, who also set a daunting early pace and used her power to rush the defending champion into error.

It is widely acknowledged that Swiatek is never more vulnerable than when she is denied time, and in that respect Sabalenka, whose success is measured in the milliseconds it takes for her blunderbuss strokes to work their destructive magic, represents the ultimate challenge. But there is a reason Swiatek went into the contest with just two losses from 42 previous appearances at Roland Garros, and in the second set she showed her mettle.

Returning with greater depth and penetration, Swiatek secured an early break with a pair of rifled backhand winners, only to relinquish the advantage immediately with a poor service game.

But when Sabalenka replied in kind, producing an error-strewn game to concede a second break, Swiatek was not about to repeat her mistake. She instead consolidated the advantage with panache, producing a first ace of the afternoon, an exquisite piece of touch on the half-volley, and an extraordinary, lunging drop shot. In the minutes that followed, Swiatek produced her finest tennis of the fortnight and, arguably, her entire, chequered season. 

Without a title since defeating Jasmine Paolini in last year’s final, the four-time champion has slipped from first to fifth in the rankings, and will fall to seventh next week. In recent months, she has suffered losses to Jelena Ostapenko, Mirra Andreeva, Coco Gauff and Danielle Collins, respectively ending title defences in Qatar, Indian Wells, Madrid and Rome.

But as she became bolder in the baseline exchanges, producing some sharp touches at the net and improving markedly on serve – where she won 71% of points behind her first delivery, up from 43% in the first set, and more than doubled her success rate behind the second – there were glimpses of the Swiatek of old. It made Sabalenka’s superiority down the stretch all the more sobering.

“She still served really well, I feel like I served the same and she read my serve much better, so I probably won less points on the return,” said Swiatek. “I think I lost my intensity a bit and she just played pretty strong, as in the first set, but I didn’t react to that well and just couldn’t push back.

“The pace from her was super fast, she for sure, especially at the beginning of the match, played as hard as possible and pretty risky, so it was just hard to get into any rally. [In the second set] I was able to do that, so more things happened, it wasn’t just like serve and one shot, or return and one shot, I could build the rally.  

“In the third set I feel like we came back to what happened in the first, and she for sure used her chances and I didnt really keep up what I was doing in the second set.”

There were no such difficulties for Gauff, who ended the extraordinary run of French wildcard Loïs Boisson, the world No 361. The Frenchwoman, who carried the hopes of a nation after defeating three seeded players en route to the semi-finals including Jessica Pegula, the world No 3, and the sixth-ranked Mirra Andreeva, but struggled to reproduce that form as she slumped to a 6-1, 6-2 defeat. Gauff will now attempt to claim the title that eluded her three years ago, when she was routed by Swiatek in the final. 

“My first final here, I was super nervous, and I kind of wrote myself off before the match even happened,” said Gauff, 21, who defeated Sabalenka to win the 2023 US Open. “Obviously, here, I have a lot more confidence just from playing a grand slam final before and doing well in one.”

Whether that will be enough to stop Sabalenka is another matter.

“It was a big match, and it felt like a final, but I know that the job is not done yet,” said Sabalenka. “I have to go out there on Saturday, and I have to fight and I have to bring my best tennis, and I have to work for that title. 

“I’m ready; I’m ready to go out, and I’m ready to fight. And I’m ready to do everything it’s going to take to get the win.”

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The 29-year-old from Tuscany defeated Coco Gauff, the American world No 2, in straight sets to claim her second WTA 1000 title, following last year’s victory in Dubai,  and her first on clay.

The sixth-seeded Paolini broke early in both sets and refused to relinquish the initiative, keeping her error count low and the quality of her ball-striking high as she rode the energy of a raucously partisan crowd to emulate Raffaella Reggi’s 1985 triumph. 

True to form, she did it with a combination of smiles and steel, her rare setbacks greeted with a broad grin, her frequent successes with a clenched fist and a snarl of self-exhortation. Powerless to stem the tide, Gauff defiantly saved one match point with a rifled backhand winner, but she was merely delivering the inevitable. Moments later, Paolini delivered a stinging first serve to get the party started in earnest.

And what a party. The stadium DJ, no stranger to the volume controls throughout a memorable fortnight for Italian tennis, amped up the sound to deafening levels. With the champion’s mother, Jacqueline Gardiner, dancing in the stands and the Italian president Sergio Mattarella beaming his approval, Sara Errani, Paolini’s doubles partner, joined the fevered celebrations enveloping Campo Centrale. As for Paolini, she gambolled across the red dust, revelling in a buoyant atmosphere that she later described as “like a football stadium”.

Errani, alongside whom Paolini will contest the women’s doubles final against on Sunday, was the last Italian to reach the final at the Foro Italico, but that was in 2014. Here was a victory for today, for a nation riding an unprecedented tennis high and hopeful that Jannik Sinner, the men’s world No 1, can complete a clean sweep of singles honours for the Tricolore when he faces Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday.

“It’s amazing, it’s really a dream,” Paolini told Sky Sports Tennis. “I was coming to watch this tournament when I was a kid and now, holding the trophy, it’s unbelievable.

“I never thought I could hold this trophy one day, but today is a special day for me. I never played so well here, I never won two matches, but this year something changed.

“I think today was the best match I played here in Rome, I was controlling the ball really well. I stepped on court, I was tactically very focused, and the plan was clear. I did well, I didn’t do many mistakes, I was solid and it was a great match.

“In Italy, tennis is growing a lot and I’m really happy to be a part of it.”

If the outcome was a repeat of the Italian’s quarter-final victory over Gauff in Stuttgart last month, the manner of it was quite different. 

On that occasion, Paolini had drawn on her ample reserves of tenacity and resolve to claw back an early deficit. This time, she went toe-to-toe from the outset, stepping inside the baseline, firing her groundstrokes with a depth and penetration to which Gauff had no answer.

“Jasmine played great tennis,” said Gauff, whose difficulties were compounded by 55 unforced errors. “Unfortunately, I felt like I didn’t bring my best, which I knew I needed today.

“That’s not to discredit my opponent. She forced me to play that way. Maybe I could have served better and put more balls in the court. But she played to win today and she deserved to win.”

With the dust now settled on the ecstatic highs of last summer, when Paolini reached two grand slam finals in quick succession at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, only to come up short on both occasions, this was a cathartic moment for the italian. Then, success came unexpectedly; now, the late-blooming champion has proved, yet again, that she can mix it with the best.

A double fault from Gauff on the opening point set the tone for a tough afternoon for the American, who struggled on second serve, winning a meagre 11 of 27 points, and hit seven double faults. 

Paolini, meanwhile, set a breathless early pace, and while the initial exchanges were tightly contested, it was the Italian who emerged from a flurry of early breaks to establish a 3-1 lead. From there, the outcome was rarely in doubt.

Paolini, who rises one place to No 4 in the rankings, will now head to Roland Garros firmly embedded among the title favourites and confident in the knowledge that last year’s run to the final was no fluke. Could she go one better this time around? Only a fool would bet against it.

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In an echo of her defeat at the same stage of Wimbledon two months ago, the American world No 3 was upended in the fourth round by her compatriot Emma Navarro, the 13th seed, whose remarkable journey at Flushing Meadows continued with a tenacious 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 win.

Before last week, Navarro had never even won a match in New York, much less squared off against the defending champion on Arthur Ashe Stadium. But the 23-year-old New Yorker ensured her debut on the sport’s biggest stage was a memorable one, living up to her “ice girl” nickname with a composed, intelligent performance that ruthlessly exposed the technical deficiencies in Gauff’s game.

In the city they famously named twice, as the old song goes, Navarro effectively earned victory twice, first when she stood within two games of repeating her straight-sets victory over Gauff on Wimbledon’s Centre Court, then when she regrouped after faltering in the face of a typically impassioned fightback from Gauff.

Yet Navarro was also the beneficiary of a woeful serving performance from Gauff, who hit 19 double faults and made a whopping 60 unforced errors in all. Twenty-nine of those mistakes came on the champion’s forehand, which disintegrated under the relentless pressure exerted by Navarro.

It was a far cry from the wonders of last summer, when Gauff won a first WTA 500 title in Washington, a maiden 1000 event in Cincinnati, and then became the first American teenager to triumph at a major since Serena Williams won at Flushing Meadows in 1999. She is hardly the first player to struggle under the weight of expectation that accompanies the defence of a first grand slam title, but the manner of her defeat exposed deeper problems.

It was not only the quantity of double faults that cost Gauff so dearly, but also their timing. In the sixth game, she hit two in a row from 15-30 to concede a break that would decide the first set. At 3-3, 30-30 in the second set, her eighth double fault of the evening gifted Navarro a break point that put the world No 12 within touching distance of victory. And although Gauff capitalised on a first hint of vulnerability from Navarro to wriggle out of that hole, worse was to follow in the decider, where she dropped serve in the third game with back-to-back double faults and never recovered. Three more in the final game completed her misery.

“I played well for the most part, I just didn’t take care of my serve,” said Gauff, who did not rule out the possibility of consulting a biomechanics expert, as Aryna Sabalenka did so successfully in similar circumstances. “That was the biggest difference, too many free points on my serve. I go down on my left side a lot on my serve, and it’s something I’m aware of. [But] it’s tough in the moment not to do it. I was just trying to commit to [the serve] and just stay calm.”

Martina Navratilova, working on commentary for Sky Sports, described Gauff’s continued struggles in an area of her game that has long come under scrutiny as an embarrassment.

“It’s one thing when you’re missing forehands or returns,” said Navratilova, an 18-time grand slam champion in singles. “The opponent’s in control, you’re reacting. But missing serves, when you’re in control – it’s embarrassing. Serve should be a plus, or at least neutral. It should not be a minus. It feeds off into the rest of your game.”

The accuracy of Navratilova’s analysis was reflected in the number of errors Gauff made off the forehand, an area that Navarro targeted from the outset. Time and again the world No 3 failed to get her weight through the shot, her extreme grip and tendency to fall off the ball leading to numerous shanks and overspun balls that nosedived into the net. Gauff’s coach, Brad Gilbert, urged her to go high to Navarro’s backhand, yet the tactic had little effect, even when the 20-year-old was able to implement it.

Navarro’s victory was about more than simply exploiting her opponent’s weaknesses, however. She neutralised Gauff’s serve with the quality and consistency of her returning, taking the ball early when she could, blocking it when occasion demanded. She absorbed and redirected Gauff’s power in the baseline exchanges, manipulating the ball intelligently and maintaining immaculate length. And down the stretch, as Gauff fought to retain the title, Navarro retained her composure and her aggression, relentlessly taking on her shots, playing to win rather than relying on the champion’s frailties.

“There’s a different energy playing on Ashe, playing someone like Coco,” said Navarro. “There’s a ton of energy and passion and emotion out there which I don’t show, but I definitely feel it. It wasn’t easy today. I wasn’t able to close it out in two sets, so just really wanted to take that moment on in the third set, just really aggressively and confidently.”

Navarro’s reward is a quarter-final appointment with Paula Badosa, whose renascent summer run continued with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Wang Yafan of China. The 26-year-old Spaniard, a former world No 2 whose ranking plummeted after she suffered a stress fracture in her back last season, won her first title in more than two years last month in Washington before reaching the semi-finals in Cincinnati.

“A few months ago, I was thinking to quit this sport because I stopped believing in myself and my injury wasn’t responding,” said Badosa after reaching the second major quarter-final of her career. “To be back [at this level] is a dream come true.”

Elsewhere, Aryna Sabalenka moved into the last eight with a comfortable win over her former doubles partner Elise Mertens. The Belarusian second seed, defeated by Gauff in last year’s final, won 6-2, 6-4 and will next face Qinwen Zheng, the Olympic champion, who defeated Donna Vekic of Croatia 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-2.

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The biggest casualty came early. Shortly after cutting short a morning practice session, Aryna Sabalenka, seeded third and twice a semi-finalist at the All England Club, withdrew from the tournament with a shoulder injury. The 26-year-old subsequently took to social media to say she was “heartbroken” to have to pull out of her scheduled first-round match against Emina Bektas of the United States.

“I tried everything to get myself ready but unfortunately my shoulder is not co-operating,” wrote Sabalenka. “I pushed myself to the limit in practice today to try my best, but my team explained that playing would only make things much worse.”

Sabalenka, who also withdrew from her quarter-final match at last month’s Berlin Open with shoulder pain, spoke openly of her physical struggles before the tournament, yet that did little to mitigate the sense of shock surrounding her withdrawal. With the likes of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray all but clambering off the operating table and straight on to the practice courts in recent weeks, we have become inured to top players defying medical probability. But not every physical issue can be surmounted, and Sabalenka’s injury – to the teres major, a small but important muscle that runs under the shoulder joint and controls abduction and internal rotation – has caused her pain on her service, the bedrock of her game. Her frustration has been magnified by the fact that she can perform other movements without pain.

“The most annoying thing is that I can do anything, I can practise, I can hit my groundstrokes, but I’m struggling with serving, so that’s really annoying,” Sabalenka said at the weekend. 

“You don’t feel like you are injured, you know. If you give me some weights, I’m going to go and lift some weights. But if you tell me to serve, I’m going to go through pain.”

Sabalenka’s absence will be keenly felt, particularly with four of the world’s top six in the upper half of the draw. Coco Gauff, seeded second, was originally expected to face the two-time Australian Open championin the semi-finals. The American has never been beyond the fourth round, but made a winning start against Caroline Dolehide, dismissing her compatriot 6-2, 6-1 to erase the memory of last year’s first-round exit to Sofia Kenin. Gauff is not getting ahead of herself following Sabalenka’s withdrawal.

“I wouldn’t have probably played her till the semis,” said Gauff. “At that point, it’s just like, ‘This is the semi-finals of a grand slam.’ No matter who you play, it’s going to be a tough person to play. 

“But it is unfortunate that she had to pull out. She’s always a contender in every slam and [on] every surface. She’s such a competitor.”

Sabalenka was swiftly followed out of the tournament by another Belarusian nursing a shoulder injury. Victoria Azarenka, seeded 16th and also a two-time semi-finalist in SW19, had been scheduled to face Sloane Stephens in a battle of former major winners, but was likewise forced to withdraw. Stephens, the 2017 US Open champion, despatched Azarenka’s replacement, French lucky loser Elsa Jacquemot, 6-3, 6-3.

That left Karolina Pliskova, a finalist in 2021, as the only remaining player in the bottom half of the draw with experience of the latter stages. However, the 32-year-old Czech was beaten 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 by Diana Shnaider, the recently crowned Bad Homburg champion. If that deepened an already palpable sense of opportunity, the door was pushed further ajar when Lulu Sun, a 23-old-qualifier ranked 123 in the world, defeated Qinwen Zheng, the Chinese world No 8. The New Zealander defeated Zheng, who was seeded to meet Sabalenka in the quarter-finals in a repeat of this year’s Australian Open final, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Among those hoping to capitalise on Zheng’s loss will be Emma Raducanu, the former US Open champion, who was beneficiary of yet another late withdrawal. Originally expected to face Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 22nd seed, Raducanu instead found herself up against Mexico’s Renata Zarzua, a lucky loser ranked 98 in the world. The British wild card, ranked 135, prevailed 7-6 (7-0), 6-3 and will next face Elise Mertens of Belgium, the world’s best doubles player, who came from behind to see off Japan’s Nao Hibino 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Should Raducanu advance to the third round, she could meet Maria Sakkari, the Greek ninth seed, who navigated the opening round of a major for only the second time in six attempts with a 6-3, 6-1 win over McCartney Kessler of the United States. 

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Swiatek, a quarter-finalist last time out, will get her campaign underway against former Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, who defeated Coco Gauff in the opening round 12 months ago. It will be a repeat of their first-round meeting in Melbourne earlier this year, which Swiatek won in two hard-fought sets. The 23-year-old also defeated Kenin to win her first title at Roland Garros in 2020.

Swiatek could face Germany’s Angelique Kerber, whose three grand slam victories include the 2018 Wimbledon title, in round three, ahead of a projected meeting with Jelena Ostapenko, another former major winner. The 13th-seeded Latvian has won all four of their previous meetings – although, if she is to get a crack at a fifth, Ostapenko will first need to negotiate an intriguing opener against Alja Tomljanovic, the Australian wild card who accused her of faking injury during a feisty third-round win in 2021.

Swiatek is projected to face Marketa Vondousova, the Czech defending champion, in the last eight. Vondrousova will play Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain in the first round and could go up against Danielle Collins, the 11th-seeded American who is competing at Wimbledon for the final time, in the last 16. 

If the seedings hold, Swiatek will play former champion Elena Rybakina in the semi-finals. The 25-year-old from Kazakhstan opens against Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and could face Ons Jabeur, whom she defeated to win the title two summers ago, for the third year in a row in the last 16. The Tunisian, seeded 10th, will begin her bid to reach a third straight final against Moyuka Uchijima of Japan. 

In the bottom half, third seed Aryna Sabalenka will open her campaign against Emina Bektas of the United States. The Belarusian, who practised with Jabeur on Centre Court shortly after the draw was made on Friday morning, is expected to face Qinwen Zheng in the last eight, in what would be a repeat of this year’s Australian Open final. 

Propping up the draw is Gauff, the reigning US Open champion, who will start her first major as the world No 2 against fellow American Caroline Dolehide. Should the 20-year-old advance to the last eight for the first time, she could face Italy’s Jasmine Paolini, the eighth seed and French Open finalist, who reached the Eastbourne semi-finals this week.

Domestic interest will centre on Emma Raducanu, who opens against Ekaterina Alexandrova, the 22nd seed, and Katie Boulter, the British No 1, who faces a potentially tricky start against former semi-finalist Tatjana Maria.

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Iga Swiatek may have a way to go before matching the Spaniard’s dominance on the Parisian clay but, after defeating Coco Gauff in straight sets in Thursday’s semi-finals, she will have the opportunity to compete for a fourth French Open title in five years when she faces Italy’s Jasmine Paolini in two days’ time. Given that she has just turned 23 – like Nadal, she celebrates her birthday during the fortnight – another win would see Swiatek equal her childhood idol’s record at the same age. 

“I would never expect anybody to compare me to Rafa, because for me he’s above everybody and he’s a total legend,” said the Polish world No 1. “I’m proud of myself that I’m playing consistently here and that I’m even mentioned in the same sentence as Rafa.”

If she continues in her present vein, Swiatek is likely to find herself in many such sentences in years to come. The defending champion’s 6-2, 6-4 success against Gauff was her 20th in a row at Roland Garros, where she is bidding to become the first woman since Justine Henin to win three straight titles. Having won the WTA 1000 events in Madrid and Rome on the road to Paris, she is also riding an 18-match winning streak on clay. Not quite Nadal’s 81 consecutive victories on the surface, let alone Chris Evert’s 125, but she is certainly on the right track.

“This surface makes my game better,” said Swiatek. “My grip allows me to spin more. I can play more defence points because it’s a bit slower, but on the other hand I also get also more time to attack.”

She did plenty of both against Gauff, who set out to play on the front foot but was in trouble from the moment she sent a drive volley sailing over the baseline to drop her opening service game. Having lost all but one of her previous 11 meetings with Swiatek – including two on Court Philippe Chatrier, in the 2022 final and last year’s quarter-finals – the 20-year-old’s predicament was clear. To buck the trend, she had to try something different.

Naomi Osaka established a template for success with her near-miss against Swiatek in the second round but, for all the virtues of Gauff’s game, she does not possess Osaka’s ability to combine raw power with consistency off the ground. As her victory over Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s US Open final demonstrated, the Atlantan is at her best when absorbing pace and counter-punching. So while her enterprise was admirable, Gauff’s final tally of 39 unforced errors to 27 winners was symptomatic of a flawed game plan, particularly on a clay court, and especially against Swiatek. 

It was no coincidence that Gauff’s best phase of the match came when she began to play with greater patience. That came in the early stages of the second set, where she established a 3-1 lead despite a moment of controversy that left her in tears. 

When a Swiatek serve was incorrectly called long, the chair umpire, Aurélie Tourte, swiftly intervened to correct the mistake, but ruled that the line judge’s intervention had not affected Gauff’s missed return and should not be replayed. The American pleaded her case, arguing that the call had come in unison with her attempt to play the ball, but her objections fell on deaf ears. TV evidence suggested she had a point, and afterwards Gauff’s bemoaned the sport’s failure to employ technology in such circumstances.

“It’s almost ridiculous that we don’t have it,” said Gauff, who will rise to a career-high ranking of No 2 next week. “Every sport has it. There are so many decisions that are made, and it sucks as a player to go online and you see that you were completely right. 

“In situations, you can call for the supervisor, but there’s not much they can do from that standpoint. So I definitely think as a sport we have to evolve. We have the technology, they’re showing it on TV, so I don’t get why the player can’t see it.”

In the second semi-final, Paolini’s experience told against Mirra Andreeva, the 17-year-old Russian who defeated an off-colour Aryna Sabalenka on Wednesday. Paolini seized the initiative with an early break, and although Andreeva fashioned five opportunities to get the opening set back on serve, the 12th-seeded Italian averted the danger with trademark tenacity. The 28-year-old then reeled off six games in a row to complete a 6-3, 6-1 victory and become the first Italian woman to reach a final at Roland Garros since Sara Errani in 2012. Not bad for a player who had never advanced beyond the second round of a major before this year.

“It’s a great feeling to be in a grand slam final,” said Paolini. “It seems something impossible, you know, but it’s true, so I’m really happy to be in this position.”

Paolini’s breakout year began with a run to the last 16 of the Australian Open and a first WTA 1000 title in Dubai. Having started the season ranked 29th, she will be a top-10 player when the new ranking list is published next week. In two days’ time, however, she will face one of the toughest challenges in tennis: Swiatek, on Chatrier, in the French Open final. 

The locals have a verb, “Nadaliser”, that they have traditionally used to describe Nadal’s domination on the red clay where he has won 14 of his 22 grand slam titles. It will be of little comfort to Paolini that they are now repurposing that word to characterise Swiatek’s supremacy at Roland Garros. On Saturday, we shall see if the Italian can avoid being Nadalised.

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Sabalenka, the most brutal ball-striker in the women’s game, briefly turned touch artist. Collins, who bows to no one in her mental and emotional intensity, was eerily becalmed. And as hopes of a gladiatorial contest gave way to a more prosaic reality, so the murmur of expectation that initially soundtracked the occasion slowly died, to be replaced by the odd ripple of polite applause. 

But if the sixth meeting between two of the fiercest competitors in the women’s game was a far cry from their blood-and-thunder collision last month in Madrid, the bottom line remained the same, Sabalenka prevailing 7-5, 6-2 to maintain her unbeaten record against the American and earn a place in the Italian Open final.

Awaiting the second-seeded Belarusian will be Iga Swiatek, whose 6-4, 6-3 win over Coco Gauff was more a case of business as usual. Through to her third final in four years in Rome, the Polish world No 1 has now won 10 of her 11 meetings with Gauff in straight sets. Swiatek is yet to drop a set over the fortnight, and is also riding an 11-match unbeaten streak that began with her title run at the Madrid Open, where she claimed an epic three-set victory over Sabalenka after saving three championship points.

While Swiatek has made serene progress, Sabalenka’s path to the second Saturday has been strewn with obstacles. Aside from the inevitable mental and emotional hangover that followed her defeat in the Spanish capital, the 26-year-old Belarusian arrived in Rome suffering from illness. She flirted with disaster in her opening match against Katie Volynets, an American qualifier ranked 109, and a couple of rounds later she suffered a back injury in an otherwise cathartic victory over Elina Svitolina in which she fended off three match points. 

“After Madrid, I didn’t feel great,” said Sabalenka, who was taken to a deciding set in all but one of her six matches at the event. “I had illness, then I got injured. I [was] kind of surprised that, even [with] so much stuff going on, I was able to make it to the [Rome] final. 

“At the same time, I knew that the level was there. If I start feeling better, I can go to the finals. So it’s like 50/50, you know? But that match [against Swiatek] definitely hurt me. It was a really tough loss, especially after having some match points, even though she played great tennis.

“Hopefully, here in Rome, I can get the win and get the title.”

If she continues to channel her inner Ons Jabeur as she did against Collins, Sabalenka will do her chances no harm. Under pressure on serve in the third game, she unexpectedly leavened the mix with a delicate, angled forehand drop shot that left Collins stranded behind the baseline. Another followed two games later, this time from the backhand. Vicious power remains the bedrock of her game, but such variety could offer a useful extra dimension against Swiatek, who was certainly driven to distraction by Yulia Putintseva’s drop shots in the third round. Just don’t expect her to opt for finesse if she gets a match point again.

“I’ll trust myself and go for shots instead of trying to keep in the point, just keep the ball back in,” said Sabalenka. “Instead of playing safe, I would just go for it.”

Swiatek, meanwhile, appears to have left Madrid with more than just the trophy. Only once previously had she contested a final-set tiebreak at tour level, and the one she played at the Caja Mágica was her first in a final. But having come through the experience, she has looked all the stronger for it. 

It is not unusual for Swiatek to advance to a final without dropping a set, even at this rarefied level, yet she has shown impressive resilience at the Foro Italico. After dropping the opening set, Putintseva was a point away from taking a 5-1 lead against her. Angelique Kerber led 2-0 in the second set after saving seven set points in the first. Gauff too started strongly, claiming an early break with a delicious topspin lob. But Swiatek rebounded on each occasion, playing with a calmness and self-belief that have not always been evident in moments of high stress.

“I think [the Madrid final] gave me confidence that I can win even though I’m not feeling the best way or I’m stressed at the beginning,” said Swiatek. “I can still get the score back.

“Maybe I’m less worried before matches because I know even if I’m going to be in trouble, I’ll be able to recover from it maybe if I’m going to work hard. This is the kind of feeling that I have.”

The benefits of that mindset were clear in the Pole’s outstanding quarter-final victory against Madison Keys, where she saved all 10 break points she faced. Yet, whatever her performance in Madrid may have given her, the 22-year-old is focused only on the here and now as she prepares to lock horns with Sabalenka again. 

“I don’t think it makes sense to think about these two matches as one continuing story, because [it’s a] totally different tournament,” said Swiatek. “Different week, as well. It’s not like it’s going to be the same. I’ll try to be in the present, not really think about Madrid.

“It’s a totally different story.”

A fortnight after one of the most dramatic and compelling finals in recent years, many will be hoping otherwise.

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An outstanding performance from Ekaterina Alexandrova put paid to Swiatek’s hopes of winning the “sunshine double” of Indian Wells and Miami for the second time in three years, the 29-year-old Russian prevailing 6-4, 6-2 to claim the most significant victory of her career.

Alexandrova, who had never previously beaten a reigning world No 1, becomes only the third player to defeat Swiatek this season, and the third ever to survive a match against the Pole at this category of event without dropping serve. It was Swiatek’s first loss to a top-20 player since last September, when Veronika Kudermetova thwarted her in the quarter-finals of the Japan Open.

“She played an amazing match and for sure she was a better player out there today,” said Swiatek after suffering her first defeat before the quarter-finals of a WTA 1000 event since the 2022 Cincinnati Open. “I had a hard time reading [her serve], and I got a little bit tense also when I couldn’t return well. 

“At the end, I think all that really made my game worse. I was feeling like I can’t play in a natural way, but it’s not like I always feel comfortable on court, so I thought I was going to be able to work through that.”

Alexandrova’s excellence ensured otherwise. The tone was set from the opening game, when the Russian fired a blazing forehand winner to secure what would prove a vital break. In the sixth game, Alexandrova fended off the only break point she would face on the evening, gobbling up a short ball behind a meaty first serve, and there was a perceptible swagger in her step as she served out the opener to love. 

By this stage, Swiatek’s unforced errors were outnumbering her winners by a ratio of two to one, yet worse was to come for the Pole. As her forehand became increasingly wayward in the face of Alexandrova’s aggressive baseline onslaught, Swiatek suffered the rare indignity of losing five straight games from 1-0 up in the second set. Her difficulties were compounded by the excellence of Alexandrova’s return game, the Russian alternating between stepping inside the baseline to crush huge returns off Swiatek’s first serve, and retreating to deal equally severely with the higher-bouncing topspin of her second delivery.

It was a winning formula, one that will not have gone unnoticed in the locker room, although with 27 unforced errors to just 11 winners – a department in which Alexandrova dwarfed her, battering 31 winners including eight aces – Swiatek undoubtedly contributed to her downfall. Struggling with the transition following her title win in Indian Wells, where the courts are slower and the balls lighter, she simply failed to find her best form in Miami. After demolishing Camila Giorgi on Saturday, Swiatek declared herself happy with the conditions, but that changed after she became embroiled in a taut three-setter with Linda Noskova the following day. 

“I kind of changed my mind,” she said after defeating her Australian Open conqueror for a second straight tournament. “Now I know that I still have some things to figure out.”

The same could be said for Coco Gauff, the third seed, whose ambitions of winning her hometown tournament were undone by Caroline Garcia, the 23rd seed. The 30-year-old Frenchwoman prevailed 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, her third successive victory in five matches against Gauff, who was unable to contain her opponent’s free-flowing aggression despite a strong second-set fightback.

From a familiarity with the local climate and surroundings to the backing of the home crowd, all the advantages seemed to be in the US Open champion’s favour. That feeling increased when Garcia, who defeated Naomi Osaka in straight sets in the previous round, required treatment on a shoulder problem that took the sting out of her first serve. But the former world No 4’s first-strike style proved too hot to handle for Gauff, whose challenge faded quickly once she failed to seize opportunities to break at the start of the decider.

“It’s definitely a great match and great win for me,” said Garcia, who will face Danielle Collins, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Sorana Cirstea, for a place in the last four. 

“I try to always be very aggressive and take some time away. Looks like Coco doesn’t really like it.”

Alexandrova, through to the quarter-finals for the second year in a row, will play Jessica Pegula after the fifth-seeded American defeated Emma Navarro 7-6 (7-1), 6-3. The Russian is under no illusions about what she will need to do if she is to avenge her straight-sets defeat to Pegula in the only previous meeting between the pair, which came just under three years ago in Rome. 

“Probably the same thing I did today [against Swiatek]: so stay consistent, stay focused and just focus on my game, not on the opponent,” Alexandrova said. “[I’ll] just do my best and we’ll see.”

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