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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But after her unscripted appeal to the Paris public to refrain from crying out during rallies, which followed a nail-biting victory from match point down against Naomi Osaka two days ago, Swiatek could have been forgiven for wondering how she would be received as she stepped on to Court Philippe Chatrier to face Marie Bouzkova.

In a week when crowd behaviour at Roland Garros has come under intense scrutiny, the top seed’s words seemed as bold as her tennis, but any fears she may have harboured over the consequences of speaking out were immediately allayed. Swiatek was greeted by a roar of approval and enjoyed warm support throughout as she marked her 23rd birthday with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Bouzkova, before the stadium treated her to a chorus of Happy Birthday. 

Evidently there are no hard feelings.

“I enjoyed playing today,” Swiatek, who notably enjoyed respectful silence as she went about her business, told Fabrice Santoro in her on-court interview. 

“Marie is a difficult player, because she’s really good at defence, every ball will come back. I really wanted to be patient and solid, and not rush it. I’m happy at the end that I did that.”

It was a predictably challenging afternoon for Bouzkova, who recognised the futility of trying to contain Swiatek’s aggression in the baseline exchanges and tailored her tactics accordingly. There were signs of promise for the 25-year-old when she ventured to the net in the early stages, while her intelligent variations of height and spin contributed to an unexpected dip from Swiatek late in the first set. 

Ultimately, though, Bouzkova lacked the brute force to trouble the defending champion as Osaka had done, Swiatek’s depth and weight of shot pinning her to the baseline, where she spent much of the afternoon scurrying fruitlessly from corner to corner. With Swiatek stepping into her returns, the Czech won less than a third of her second serve points, while the Pole’s superior firepower yielded 34 winners – exactly double Bouzkova’s total. After the heightened emotions of her previous match, following which TV cameras captured Swiatek wiping away tears as she lay on a gym mat, it was no doubt the kind of relatively straightforward afternoon she needed.

“Maybe I was crying because there are cameras in the gym,” quipped Swiatek, who took advantage of the inclement weather in Paris to enjoy a rest day. 

“[I was] just overwhelmed with emotions, I honestly thought that I’m going to be out of the tournament, and even though I felt something on the court, it kind of hit me after. 

“I was happy that I won, but I still felt like I was really on the edge, so I just cried.”

There was much mirth on court afterwards when Swiatek, who will face Anastasia Potapova in the last 16, was unable to recall the name of the park she visited on her day off, sparking an off-mic conversation with Santoro and some helpful suggestions from the crowd. No fan of uncertainty, Swiatek later took to social media to offer clarification: “National Estate of Saint-Cloud,” she confirmed on X, shortly after tournament organisers had presented her with a large cake.

Elsewhere, Ons Jabeur celebrated with uncharacteristic gusto after defeating Leylah Fernandez 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) to reach the second week in Paris for a fourth time in five years. Jabeur, seeded eighth, will now meet Clara Tauson for the first time after the 21-year-old Dane beat former finalist Sofia Kenin 6-2, 7-5. 

“Just reminding everyone that I’m still here,” said Jabeur, who saved a set point in the second set. “It’s also nice to prove for myself, because I’ve been in a bad place for months, trying to gain back my confidence.”

Coco Gauff, the third seed, remains on course for a projected semi-final meeting with Swiatek, easing past Dayana Yastremska 6-2, 6-4. The US Open champion will now face Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, a 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 winner over Liudmila Samsonova, the 17th seed.

“I love the courts here,” said the 51st-ranked Cocciaretto. “It reminds me a lot of the courts where I was born. I have very good memories of when I was a kid, watching on TV all the Italian players that were playing Roland Garros. Italians, we were born on clay.”

The most emotional scenes of the day came on Court Simmone-Mathieu, where Olga Danilovic, a 23-year-old qualifier from Serbia, showed extraordinary resilience to defeat Donna Vekic 0-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10-8). Danilovic, who has already claimed notable wins over Martina Trevisan and Danielle Collins, recovered from 6-2 down in the decisive tiebreak after Vekic had twice served for the match.

“I don’t know how I won this match, I was down so many times,” said Danilovic, overwhelmed by emotion, after reaching the second week of a major for the first time. 

“Yesterday I finished so late, 6.30[pm], and I got the time for today ,and it was 11am. I knew that I had to put myself together to sleep as much as I can, just to try to play. 

“But I practise for these kinds of moments. When they come, I really want to take the best out of them, just enjoy being here and enjoy suffering as well. In tennis, at the end, sometimes you really need to suffer, like I did today.”

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It was an outstanding performance from the 27-year-old, who drew on the full breadth of her substantial skillset, dictating the baseline exchanges with her bold ball-striking and rhythm-disrupting variety, defending brilliantly and weathering the storm that came her way as Gauff forced her way back into contention in the second set.

“Definitely I was coming to the court [thinking] that I can win, that I will let her play as much as I can, let her see that I’m fighting, and I think I really did this well,” said Siniakova. “In the end I kind of took that she doesn’t feel so well on the court, and I think that was the key, that I just let her play as much as I could.”

Granting Gauff licence to play is hardly the most obvious strategy, yet the strength of Siniakova’s conviction was evident from the moment she pounced on a high backhand to snatch a break in the opening game. The former doubles No 1 denied Gauff an immediate opportunity to break back with the first of several exquisite backhand drop shots and, having consolidated her advantage, she quickly forged further ahead, her willingness to chase every lost cause driving the American world No 3 to distraction.

Siniakova was aided and abetted by an erratic display from Gauff in her first match since losing to Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals of last month’s Australian Open. The 19-year-old made 45 unforced errors in total, 30 of which came off the forehand, and her woes were compounded by a poor performance on serve, where she won a meagre 30% of the points behind her second delivery. 

As one might expect from a collision of two of the world’s finest doubles players, there were some delightful touches at the net, not least in the sixth game, where Gauff raced on to a Siniakova drop shot to win a rat-a-tat exchange with a thumping overhead. That paved the way for a love break, but it was a rare early success for the American. Siniakova immediately restored her two-break cushion with a lovely piece of touch play and a rifled backhand winner, before serving out the set to love.

Gauff began the second set in a more aggressive key, finding her range off the ground as she moved inside the baseline and began ripping the ball with greater venom and conviction. As the American opened up a 4-0 lead, Siniakova won just five points, her mistakes mounting under the pressure exerted by her younger rival. But the Czech rallied brilliantly down the stretch, holding her nerve, scrambling for every shot, and forever making one more ball as Gauff was drawn into more unsightly errors. 

Sinakova will face the American qualifier Danielle Collins, a 6-4, 7-5 winner over Marie Bouzkova, for a place in the quarter-finals.

 “She’s a really aggressive player, she is going for the points, and I think it’s going to be kind of the same,” said Siniakova, a seven-time grand slam doubles champion. “I need to try to be more aggressive than her and maybe let her play as much as I can. I will try to focus on my game and fight for every point.”

On a day of shocks in Doha, Ons Jabeur and Maria Sakkari, respectively seeded fourth and seventh, also exited the tournament. 

Still suffering from “small problems” in the right knee on which she underwent minor surgery this time last year, Jabeur fell to a third defeat in four matches this season, losing 6-3, 6-2 against Lesia Tsurenko. It was the 37th-ranked Ukrainian’s first top-10 win for five years. 

Sakkari, meanwhile, came out on the wrong side of a tight three-setter against Linda Noskova, the Czech teenager who defeated Iga Swiatek en route to the quarter-finals of last month’s Australian Open. The Greek held a match point against Noskova’s serve at 5-3 in the second set only to fall to a 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 defeat.

Naomi Osaka followed up her opening-round win over Caroline Garcia with a 6-3, 7-6 (11-9) victory against Croatia’s Petra Martic. It is the first time the former world No 1 has put together back-to-back victories since her return from maternity leave last month in Brisbane.

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Last summer, she came through qualifying to make the third round at Roland Garros and the second week of Wimbledon. By the time Andreeva arrived at Flushing Meadows, her ranking had risen by 80 places and her qualifying days were behind her. The teenager now has at least one win at each of the four slams.

A lesser talent might have sought to take her first steps in the professional game at more humble stops on the tour, but Andreeva is a young woman in a hurry. She joked last year that she hopes to win more majors than Novak Djokovic, suggesting 25 as an appropriate number. Depending on events over the next 10 days, that figure may yet have to be revised upwards, but the signs that Andreeva can compete at the highest level are encouraging, and on Wednesday in Rod Laver Arena she took another significant step forward with a 6-0, 6-2 rout of Ons Jabeur, the sixth seed.

The Russian’s performance was every bit as remarkable as that extraordinary scoreline would suggest. Andreeva eclipsed Jabeur, a veteran of three grand slam finals, in just about every way a player can be eclipsed: with her movement, consistency and powerful ball-striking, but also with her composed decision-making and variety.

As she romped to the first top-10 win of her career in just 54 minutes, Andreeva appeared utterly fearless, the only obvious sign of anxiety coming at the death, when she nervously shanked an inviting overhead long while serving for the match. That she was facing her childhood idol, on a stage where she suffered a heart-breaking loss in the junior final to her 16-year compatriot Alina Korneeva this time last year, only added to the magnitude of her achievement.

“I’m happy I played with Ons,” said Andreeva, who insisted she was “really nervous before the match”. 

“It was one of my dreams to play against her, because I really like the way she plays. I’m inspired by her, so today it meant a lot, this match that I won.”

Good as Andreeva was, Jabeur was like a magician with a misfiring wand. Her serve, both first and second, deserted her. Volleys flew long. Backhands nosedived into the net or flew wide. She had only nine winners to offset her 24 unforced errors, and the unfolding agony of a humbling defeat could be traced in her features: a pained expression after 10 minutes, a disbelieving smile as Andreeva rifled a backhand of pinpoint precision beyond her to close in on the first set, and finally, a fruitless late hold notwithstanding, a look of weary resignation. Jabeur’s innate decency shone through as she approached the net with a warm-hearted smile at the end.

“She’s so nice,” said Andreeva. “After the match, she came to me, she wished me luck. I just know that she is who she is, and she never changes. That’s what I like about her.”

The teenager will face Diane Parry of France next, with Barbora Krejcikova, the ninth seed, potentially the biggest obstacle to a place in the quarter-finals. Andreeva defeated Parry for the loss of just three games at Roland Garros last year, and has yet to lose a set against Krejcikova in two meetings. Currently ranked 47th, she is set to rise roughly a dozen places, and could go even higher. Not that she is getting carried away.

“I don’t think that I achieved something incredible, so I have time still to do that,” said Andreeva. “Sometimes when I’m lying in bed, I can overthink a little bit, but the next morning I’m totally fine. I mean, I’m 16. Why do I have to think about the rankings? I’m going a bit higher, and so my goal is to go higher and higher.”

Maria Timofeeva provided another noteworthy Russian success, prevailing 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 against Caroline Wozniacki, the 2018 champion.

“It definitely sucks and it’s disappointing,” said Wozniacki. “I felt like this was my match to win, and I didn’t. I obviously sit here with a very disappointing feeling, because looking back, I feel like the match kind of slid out of my hands.”

Coco Gauff, the US Open champion and fourth seed, survived a tough first to move into the third round with a 7-6 (7-2), 6-2 victory over Caroline Dolehide.

“She’s a tough opponent,” said Gauff of her fellow American. “She plays big, pretty much, on every shot.

“Not my best tennis, but, you know, a lot of improvement to look at for the next matches.”

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The 29-year-old Tunisian said after her 6-4, 6-3 win that she also has plans to set up a foundation to “help people in different situations”. 

“I haven’t been very happy lately to be honest,” said Jabeur in her post-match interview. “The situation in the world doesn’t make me happy.

“It’s very tough seeing children, babies, dying every day. It’s heart-breaking. So I have decided to donate part of my prize money to help the Palestinians. I cannot be happy with just this win.”

Addressing the crowd, she continued: “I’m sorry guys, it’s supposed to be about tennis, but it’s very frustrating looking at videos every day. I’m sorry, it’s not a political message here, just humanity. I want peace in this world and that’s it.”

Jabeur later posted a video of the emotional aftermath of the match on Instagram, writing that she hoped to make the win – which brought a measure of payback for this summer’s agonising defeat to Vondrousova in the Wimbledon final – “count beyond a tennis court”. 

After suffering a decisive defeat to Coco Gauff in her opening match in Chetumal Group, Jabeur will face Iga Swiatek on Friday with her hopes of advancing to the semi-finals still intact. Victory would take her earnings for the tournament to roughly half a million dollars and potentially open a path to the final, where the winner will received an additional $1.4m. Any donation could therefore be sizeable, but prize money and points standings were far from Jabeur’s thoughts as she reflected on the situation in the Middle East.

“A tennis match doesn’t mean anything in front of what’s happening right now,” the sixth seed said in press. “I try to stay off social media as much as I can, but it’s very tough. You go through video, photos, videos – there are horrible, horrible photos every day. It doesn’t help me sleep or recover very well.

“The worst thing is, I feel hopeless, I feel like I cannot do anything. I wish I could have a magic hand and just end all this and [create] peace for everybody. It is frustrating. Maybe donating some money would help a little bit with what they’ve been going through, but I know money doesn’t mean anything right now to them. I wish freedom for everybody, and peace for everyone.”

Jabeur expressed support for Palestine on social media last month, condemning violence on both sides but insisting she could not support “people having their lands taken”. Her words drew a sharp response from the Israel Tennis Federation, which accused her in a Facebook post of supporting “a murderous terrorist organisation”. Israeli officials subsequently filed a formal complaint to the WTA.

“What Palestinians have been going through during the last 75 years is indescribable,” Jabeur wrote on Instagram. “What innocent civilians are going through is indescribable; no matter what their religion is, or what their origin is. 

“Violence will never bring peace; I cannot stand with violence, but I also cannot stand with people having their lands taken.”

Jabeur will have her work cut out against Swiatek, who exuded physical and mental intensity as she assumed control of the group with a 6-0, 7-5 against Gauff. Despite the blustery conditions, the Polish world No 2 began at full throttle, storming through a one-sided first set before Gauff claimed a break early in the second. With the American finding her range, Swiatek continued to press, hitting through the wind and making some impressive forays to the net. 

Gauff survived an attritional 12-minute service game to hold for 4-2, and although some stout defensive play hauled Swiatek level in the eighth game, Gauff subsequently broke for a second time with a precise forehand pass. A decider looked inevitable, but four straight double faults from the US Open champion handed Swiatek a reprieve and, with Gauff’s frustration evident, the Pole surged for the line.

“I would say this match wasn’t consistent, in terms of the level,” said Swiatek, who later hit out at the WTA over changes to next season’s tournament schedule. “So for sure, adjusting to everything that happened was the most important thing. It took me a while, because I was a break down in the second set. I’m happy that I could problem solve.

“The key was being confident and mentally not focusing on the score, but really just sticking with the plan that worked in the first set.”

Jabeur will need to come up with a plan of her own if she is to find a way past Swiatek and claim a place in the semi-finals. Yet the Tunisian, who was frequently at war with herself against Vondrousova as she struggled to come to terms with the conditions, is also looking beyond the immediate.

“It’s part of my plan to not be just an athlete but also a good ambassador, a good human being,” said Jabeur. “After all, the tennis career will stop [one day] and all I want to do is help people in different situations. I will be creating my own foundation very soon.”

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If the stars align for the 22-year-old Pole in the Mexican beach resort of Cancún, she may have an opportunity to reclaim the world No 1 ranking she relinquished to Aryna Sabalenka following last month’s US Open. But Swiatek, who is likely to need a near-perfect run to keep that hope alive, had her back to the wall in the early stages of her Chetumal Group opener against Marketa Vondrousova, dropping five of the first seven games to the Czech seventh seed.

At an event where the hastily-laid stadium court has been roundly criticised by the eight-woman field, Swiatek laboured in vain to strike a balance between consistency and aggression. Once she found her range, though, the four-time grand slam champion moved smoothly through the gears, producing a timely first ace to bring up three set points before pulling away to win 7-6 (7-3), 6-0.

“It doesn’t happen often, so for sure I’m going to take a lesson from that, that I can come back from any score,” said Swiatek following her recovery from 2-5 down. 

“Even during the first part of the match, I wasn’t feeling like I was playing bad, I just felt like I was making mistakes. Overall, I was building up the rally, but then the last shot I was missing.

“So I thought that there is for sure room for improvement. It’s not like I had to change a lot, I just wanted to be more precise and more solid and not play risky, just keep my margins.”

The numbers bore out that analysis. Fifteen of Swiatek’s 22 unforced errors came in the opening set, and the bulk of those came early on as she struggled to come to terms with the tricky combination of Vondrousova’s southpaw spin and her first competitive appearance on a court where practice time has been at a premium.

Even as Vondrousova forged ahead, though, she was solid rather than spectacular. And after the 24-year-old Wimbledon champion delivered the third of her five double faults at 3-6 down in the tiebreak, her intensity and belief quickly waned. It was an all too familiar tale for Vondrousova, who lost to Swiatek by a near-identical scoreline this summer in Cincinnati after twice serving for the opening set, just as she did here.

Short of inspiration but not short of opinions, Vondrousova had much to say afterwards. Like Sabalenka, who remarked after her opening-day win over Maria Sakkari that she feels unsafe moving on a playing surface that was barely laid in time for the tournament’s commencement, Vondrousova took aim at both the court and the WTA.

“The court is honestly very bad, it’s very crazy,” said Vondrousova. “It bounces everywhere, and I feel like it’s almost like, I don’t know, bad clay or grass courts, it’s not even hard courts. I’m not saying that because I lost, I felt the same way in practice also. I don’t think this court is very good for the WTA Finals to be honest.”

Vondrousova later took to social media to elaborate on her criticism.

“My first WTA Finals is not at all what I imagined,” she wrote on Instagram. “We work hard all year to get to the finals and in the end it’s just a disappointment.

“[The] stadium is not at all ready for the matches, and to me it feels like the people from the WTA are absolutely not interested in how we, who are supposed to play on that court, feel. We do not feel that anyone listens to us and is interested in our opinions. Very sad.”

Even Swiatek, who has so far been more measured than most of her rivals in her assessment of the event’s chaotic organisation, acknowledged that the situation was less than ideal.

“Obviously it’s not a positive thing for any of us, but I think the main thing is not focusing on that and just doing your job,” said the French Open champion. “Sometimes it bounces weirdly on clay or on the grass as well, so I try to think in that perspective and just do my job. 

“For sure it’s not comfortable, and the fact that we also didn’t have time to practise on this court. But at the end it doesn’t really matter, because all of us have the same court and the same conditions.”

Coco Gauff, the American third seed, enjoyed a more comfortable start to her group campaign, claiming a maiden win at the finals with a 6-0, 6-1 demolition of Ons Jabeur. The Tunisian was off the pace from the outset, struggling to find her customary touch and consistency, and although she returned from an hour-long rain delay to make a belated impression on the scoreboard, Gauff was not to be denied.

“She played really good today,” said Jabeur, who will face Vondrousova on Wednesday. “Not my best day on the court, but that’s tennis sometimes, unfortunately.”

Gauff afterwards confirmed that she has parted ways with Pere Riba, the Spanish coach with whom she has worked for the past five months. Riba, who together with Brad Gilbert guided the American teenager to her first grand slam title at last month’s US Open, ended the arrangement due to “family issues of a personal nature”. 

“Unfortunately, it wasn’t my decision, but we had to end the partnership,” said the 19-year-old. “I had a great time with him and I wish him the best in his next chapter. If it was up to me, I would have loved to have him here but, you know, things happen, life happens. No bad terms on our end.  

“Sometimes people think it’s bigger than it is, but some things just didn’t work out and that’s all. I still think that he was a great guy, and obviously he did amazing things for me personally and also for my game.”

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Given the blustery conditions in the Mexican resort city of Cancún, Jabeur’s quick hands and exquisite feel may well put her among the title favourites. To most observers, however, the figure that really matters is No 1. That is the position Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek will dispute at the final stop on this season’s WTA Tour, where the champion will pocket up to 1,500 points – enough to either bridge or expand the 630-point gap between the two best players on the planet.

For the past seven weeks, bragging rights in the race to claim the year-end No 1 ranking have belonged to Sabalenka, who will be hoping to end the year in the same triumphant vein she began it when she stormed to a maiden grand slam title at the Australian Open. The mighty Belarusian, the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach the semi-finals or better at all four majors in the same calendar year, realised a lifelong ambition at last month’s US Open, rising to top spot for the first time despite losing to Coco Gauff in the final. The magnitude of that achievement is not lost on the 25-year-old, but neither has it gone to her head. 

“I wish I had known earlier that I can play that good,” quipped Sabalenka on the eve of her opener against Sakkari. “It’s just [been a] super great season, I think the best season in my life so far.

“[But] I think ranking, it’s just ranking, you know? It’s not like I go on court right now and everyone will be, ‘OK, I’m not playing, you’re No 1, good luck in the next round.’ It’s not changing anything. I still need to work hard. I still need to bring my best tennis on court. I think I even need to work more, because right now I feel like I’m a target for everyone.”

The latter sentiment is one Swiatek will recognise only too well. The Pole spoke of the pressures of playing with a target on her back as long ago as March, long before a fourth-round defeat to Jelena Ostapenko at Flushing Meadows drew a line under her 75-week reign at No 1. Swiatek reiterated that stance earlier this month at the China Open, her only tournament since, expressing her relief at being able to return to the practice court unencumbered by the “baggage” that goes with the top ranking. She certainly had the air of a player liberated, showcasing some intriguing technical and tactical improvements as she claimed her first WTA 1000 title of the season. 

That newfound adaptability, evident in Beijing in a relentless display of net-rushing against Sara Sorribes Tormo, and a flawless exhibition of controlled aggression in the final against Liudmila Samsonova, bodes well for Cancún, where the combination of swirling wind and a hastily-laid playing surface that has allowed scant practice time will be challenging for all the players. The need for Swiatek to tailor her game accordingly will be particularly acute given that she starts against Marketa Vondrousova, the wily Czech southpaw who outfoxed Jabeur at Wimbledon to become the first unseeded women’s champion in history. Not given to complacency, the French Open champion will be taking nothing for granted.

“You can always say the first two seeds are going to be the favourites, or the first seed,” said Swiatek, who has also been drawn alongside Gauff and Jabeur in Chetumal Group. “But honestly, so many things can happen this week. Overall, in any tennis tournament, I stopped thinking that way. I think any one of us can win this tournament. 

“I felt like [last year, when Swiatek compiled a 37-match winning streak and won Roland Garros and the US Open] was just kind of ridiculous, because people got used to me winning. It’s not like it’s going to happen all the time. So I think this season was kind of more normal, I would say, like most of the seasons we play, for even the top players.  

“The main thing I want to avoid is forgetting that this was also a good season and I still won some great tournaments. 

“Expectations from the outside, it was the thing that really sometimes stopped me this season. I’m going to work on not letting it stop me this time.”

In truth, little has stopped the 22-year-old this season. While Sabalenka has been the dominant force at the majors – although not in Paris, where Swiatek was crowned champion for the third time in four years – the Pole has won five titles and 63 matches, more than any of her peers. Samsonova, against whom Swiatek did not make a single unforced error in the Beijing final, caused quite a stir when she recently branded her rival “the real No 1”, yet it was easy to see what the Russian meant. Sabalenka’s superior grand slam record this season unquestionably makes her the rightful No 1 and yet, in the hard currency of trophies and victories, Swiatek has been the more successful player. 

If Sabalenka is to alter that skewed perception, she will need to combine a strong showing in Bacalar Group with a repeat of last year’s run to the final. Should she collect two wins from a group that includes Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula and Sakkari and then advance to the final, Swiatek will be powerless to stop her. Anything less, and the Pole will be in charge of her own destiny, although she would still probably need to win the title with an unblemished group record.

Yet, if the tournament unfolds along similar lines to recent editions, the battle for No 1 could yet be overshadowed. Should range and adaptability prove the determining factors, Jabeur and Vondrousova could emerge as disruptors-in-chief. With no previous winners in the field, either woman would be a fitting addition to a roster of left-field champions that includes Caroline Wozniacki, Elina Svitolina, Garbiñe Muguruza and Caroline Garcia. 

Victory for Jabeur would mark a fairy-tale conclusion to a chequered season that has included knee surgery and a heart-breaking defeat in the Wimbledon final for the second successive year. Neither a first French Open quarter-final nor title wins in Charleston and Ningbo – the latter her first on hard courts – have brought solace in the face of a loss that the Tunisian has described as the most painful of her career. If there has been an upside, it is that she has acquired a knack of adjusting to circumstance. 

“I learned to just adapt to everything,” said Jabeur, who opens against Gauff on Monday. “As a tennis player, I always try to adapt and not complain about a lot of things. Hopefully it will help me to play better. Definitely I will figure out how to play my best tennis in the wind.”

Vondrousova, whose quarter-final run at the US Open underlined how impressively she has adapted to life as a grand slam winner, will likewise look to make the most of her guile and tactical intelligence.

“I’m more crafty,” said the 24-year-old. “I don’t have as much power as other girls, maybe. I feel like I’m the smallest here, too. It’s a bit tough sometimes.  

“Since I was small, I was always the smallest, so I had to find ways. I feel like my lefty [style] is also a bit annoying for other players. That’s what I’m trying to do, just to be annoying.”

Gauff, meanwhile, is hopeful that an upbringing in the swirling winds of Delray Beach, Florida will work to her advantage as she seeks to reproduce the winning blend of defence and attack that earned her the US Open title.

“I will need to adjust because the wind is quite heavy,” said the 19-year-old, who lost all through of her group matches in straight sets last year in Fort Worth. “For the past few days, when I’ve been trying to practice here, it’s been really tough.

“For sure, I’m going to stick to my game. I’m going to try to still play aggressive. Of course, the serve is a weapon, so I’ll try to do my best to adjust.”

With Swiatek the favourite, adjustment is likely to be the watchword in Chetumal Group, potentially giving Jabeur or Vondrousova a slight edge. Conversely, Bacalar Group will be shaped by a collision of irresistible forces, in the shape of Sabalenka and Rybakina, and immovable objects, in the form of Pegula and Sakkari. A quarter-final loss to Rybakina in Beijing notwithstanding, a Sabalenka wobble would be a major surprise. The wider outlook is harder to predict. Pegula has little to lose after drawing a blank on her debut in Fort Worth last year, while Rybakina, the fourth seed and former Wimbledon champion, has admitted to struggling with the wind in practice. 

That leaves Sakkari, in as an alternate following the withdrawal of Karolina Muchova with a wrist injury, as a potential fly in the ointment for the trio of top-five players with whom she finds herself bracketed. A semi-finalist in each of her two previous appearances at the finals, the Greek world No 9 not only has the pedigree to get out of the group but also has a deep affinity for the host country, which she has come to see as a home for home. That feelgood factor, underlined by last month’s title win in Guadalajara, her first at WTA 1000 level, deepens the suspicion that Sakkari, effectively playing with house money, could emerge as the surprise package of the group.

“I just feel like the crowd loves me here, and I love them too,” said Sakkari. “I’ve said it many times: there’s a special connection. This week is like a celebration for me. I’m grateful to be here, to be competing again in the finals, because three times in a row is I think a great achievement.  

“I’m just going to go out there and enjoy. It would be amazing to win the whole thing, that’s my ultimate goal, of course, but I don’t want to think of winning or losing. I just want to feel like, ‘You know what, I was given that great opportunity’ – and make the most out of it.”

Semi-finals: Swiatek to defeat Sakkari; Jabeur to defeat Sabalenka.

Final: Swiatek to beat Jabeur.

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In a fitting finale, the towering American’s singles career came to an end in a fifth-set tiebreak on the US Open’s Grandstand court, where the 38-year-old, fighting to the last ball before fighting back tears, was beaten by compatriot Michael Mmoh after leading by two sets to love.

Just for good measure, Isner later returned to lose another final-set super tiebreak, this time alongside Jack Sock, who is following his long-time doubles partner into retirement. 

One of the finest servers in the sport’s history – “the best of all time” according to Andy Murray – Isner rarely relinquished a set without first exploring the opportunities offered by a tiebreak. That tends to happen when you are a 6ft 10in ace machine capable of throwing down deliveries at up to 157mph, as Isner did to set an official ATP record during a Davis Cup match against Australia in 2016. 

Yet for all the ferocity with which he fired a record 14,471 over the course of his 17-year career, Isner has always remained the gentlest of giants. Emotion overwhelmed him after his loss to Mmoh, the veteran covering his face with a towel as the enormity of the moment hit home, and he struggled to speak at times as he addressed the crowd. There were more tears later in the press room, where Isner, who held a match point, attempted to make sense of the day and reflect on his legacy to the sport.

“It’s a range of emotions,” said Isner, who broke his wrist at Flushing Meadows las year and has struggled physically since. “There is, of course, a lot of disappointment with the result of my singles match today, but at the same time a lot of gratitude, as well, just to have one last time playing in an atmosphere like that.

“I like to think I’m a good competitor. I might not win every match, that’s for sure. I might lose a lot of close matches. I might get tight and choke a little bit on the court. That happens. 

“But also, I care. I love this sport, for sure. I want to be remembered as someone who competed pretty hard on the court. I think I did that.  

“Off the court, I think it’s most important within the locker room to have the respect of my colleagues. I think I have that, judging from how many people have spoken to me. Tennis is a… it’s been a huge part of my life. It’s tough to say good-bye. It’s not easy. But eventually this day would come. It’s hard to prepare for the emotions of it.”

Near unbreakable at his best – and often even when far from his best – the former world No 8 was a man made for tiebreaks and attrition. Few will forget his extraordinary victory over Nicolas Mahut at Wimbledon in 2010, which spanned three days and finally clocked in at 11 hours and five minutes, the longest match in tennis history. Barely less remarkable was his agonising defeat to Kevin Anderson at the All England Club in 2018, which ended 26-24 in the final set after six hours and 36 minutes, a record for a Wimbledon semi-final (and the fourth longest match of all-time). A top-20 player for a decade between 2010 and 2019, Isner was also a mainstay of American tennis at a time when it had little to shout about.

Yet it was not just a day for tears and statistics. Carlos Alcaraz, the top seed and defending champion, later won a match full of smiles and flashy shot-making against South Africa’s Lloyd Harris, the pair frequently delighting in their mutual dexterity. After an all too brief workout in the opening round, where Germany’s Dominic Koepfer retired midway through the second set after suffering an early ankle injury, Alcaraz advanced in straight sets 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4), although not before suffering a sharp third-set dip. 

“Sometimes it’s tough to enjoy on court, but I try to most of the time enjoy myself on court, having a smile during the match, making jokes with my team,” said Alcaraz. “It makes me smile and show my best level. 

“I don’t mind if I lose or win, if I’m losing points I [still] high-five with the opponent. I think we did great points. We made entertainment; we’re looking, in every match, to make people enjoy watching tennis.” 

There were some humorous asides, too. Daria Kastakina, who overcame Sofia Kenin 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 to reach the third round for the first time, joked about her poor record in New York when asked about her expectations for the tournament.

“I used to have big expectations here,” said Kastakina, the 13th seed. “But then I checked my record and I realised maybe, ‘Dasha, you have to slow down.’”

Kasatkina, who will play Belgian qualifier Greet Minnen for a place in the last 16, also reflected on the difficulty of getting away from tennis during the US Open, where players adorn billboards and the sport dominates the TV schedule. Alcohol, she quipped might be the only solution. “Well, if we play each other, I’ll bring her the bottle myself,” smiled Ons Jabeur, a 7-6 (9-7), 4-6, 6-3 winner over Linda Noskova. “I’ll make sure she’s hydrated.”

There was nothing light-hearted about Matteo Berrettini’s meeting with Arthur Rinderknech, however, the former Wimbledon finalist leaving the court in a wheelchair after turning an ankle while trailing 6-4, 5-3. It continued an appalling run of injury misfortune for the Italian, who collapsed behind the baseline before emitting a howl of anguish. Berrettini underwent surgery on his right hand last year, and has struggled with a persistent abdominal injury this season.

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At that point, the Czech had no idea if she would ever again recapture the form that propelled her to the French Open final in 2019 and won her an Olympic silver medal two years later in Tokyo. As her ranking plummeted, that uncertainty was apparently shared by her clothing sponsor, who ended a four-year association with Vondrousova when her contract expired at the end of last year.

Suffice to say that somewhere in Orgeon, a Nike executive will be clearing their desk tonight after Vondrousova, unseeded and unsponsored, defeated Ons Jabeur in straight sets to become the lowest-ranked Wimbledon champion in history.

The world No 42, who had previously won just two main draw matches on grass in her life, completed a fairy-tale run at the All England Club with a 6-4, 6-4 win over last year’s finalist Ons Jabeur, the Tunisian sixth seed. It was a victory so improbable that even Vondrousova struggled to take it in.

“I think it was the most impossible grand slam for me to win, so I didn’t even think of it,” said Vondrousova, the first unseeded women’s champion since the system was introduced in 1924. “When we came, I was just like, ‘Try to win a couple of matches.’ Now this happened. It’s crazy.

“I had a cast last year at this time. It was impossible. I was watching my best friend here playing qualies. I was a tourist here.  

“When I was coming back, I didn’t know what’s going to happen, if I can play at this level again. I mean, this seems impossible. On grass, I didn’t play well before.”

The unexpected nature of Vondrousova’s presence in the final undoubtedly worked in her favour. In the final set of her quarter-final win over Jessica Pegula, the 24-year-old was a point away from falling 5-1 behind. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she went about her business against Jabeur like a woman playing with house money. Vondrousova recovered from 3-1 down in both sets and showed no hint of nerves until the final game, where she went 40-0 up only to double-fault on her first championship point. Moments later, the Czech lunged to stab away a final backhand volley and then collapsed to the grass on her back. 

“I’m just so happy that I could stay focused,” said Vondrousova, who defeated Elina Svitolina, another crowd favourite, in the semi-finals. “It’s very tough. People are cheering and everything. When it was 40-0, I couldn’t breathe. 

“I just was thinking to myself, ‘Just be over.’ I was like crazy nervous. It was such a relief when I put the match point in.”

Vondrousova’s elation was Jabeur’s heartbreak. The 28-year-old began the afternoon hoping to become the first Arab and African woman to win a major singles title. She ended it contemplating the devastation of a third straight defeat in a grand slam showpiece, having previously reached last year’s Wimbledon and US Open finals. 

Twice a break up in the first set and once in the second, Jabeur struggled to cope with both the magnitude of the moment and Vondrousova’s rhythm-disrupting array of southpaw spins and changes of pace. Jabeur held points to win each of the first five games, but for every step forward she took there were two steps back. In the third game, she relinquished an early break with a pair of unforced errors; after missing a short ball at the start of the fourth, she betrayed the depth of her anxiety by whacking her thigh in fury.

While the strength of that reaction felt premature at such an early stage, it was hardly surprising that Jabeur’s emotions were running at a high pitch. Ranked 36 places above her opponent and significantly more accomplished on grass, where she has won two of her four titles, Jabeur was the clear favourite. She has made no secret of her ambition to win the tournament, and in defeating four former major winners on her way to the final, she appeared to have done the hardest part. 

After defeating Elena Rybakina, the defending champion, and Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, in the previous two rounds, her progress to the title round was accompanied by a sense of destiny. In a sense, though, those wins were part of the problem. After absorbing pace against two of the game’s biggest hitters, Jabeur faced the entirely different challenge of generating it. That dichotomy lay at the heart of her 31 unforced errors.

“I believe that it was a completely different match from the last three that I had,” said Jabeur, who also saw off Bianca Andreescu and Petra Kvitova in earlier rounds. “So maybe adapting to her rhythm was very difficult for me. Plus, the pressure and the stress of the final.  

“I didn’t think she made a lot of mistakes. I thought she served good. I think she played maybe a perfect final.”

That was true enough, yet Vondrousova’s excellence was also magnified by Jabeur’s inability to find her usual fluency. From 4-2 up in the opener, the Tunisian won just two more points in the first set, a wretched sequence that left her battling history as well as Vondrousova. For all the resilience Jabeur showed to fight back against Rybakina and Sabalenka, the last woman to recover from a set down in the final three rounds of a major was Helen Wills Moody at the 1925 US Open. Briefly, it looked as though she might do it. But after a three-game flourish in which she looked more like her true self, Jabeur crumbled again, losing five of the last six games. She was consoled by the Princess of Wales in the aftermath.

Vondrousova’s victory continues a rich tradition of Czech success at the tournament, where past champions include Martina Navratilova, Jana Novotna and Petra Kvitova. The latest triumph was watched by both Navratilova, who is now an American citizen, and Jan Kodes, winner of the men’s title 50 years ago and an animated presence in Vondrousova’s box. Also seated among her team was Helena Sukova, five times a singles quarter-finalist at the All England Club and the winner of seven doubles titles. 

Another important presence for Vondrousova was her husband of eight years, Stepan Simek, who flew in to attend the final after abandoning cat-sitting duties at the couple’s home in Prague. It was Simek that she called during a crucial rain delay against Pegula while the roof was closed (as it was here – a factor that, as she acknowledged, probably worked to her advantage), later crediting his calm words of encouragement for her victory. 

“I think when I came to the box, he cried,” said Vondrousova. “I saw him after, and he cried a lot. I think that’s the first emotion I saw from him over the eight years.”

The contrasting emotions of the occasion were reflected in the two camps either side of match point. While Vondrousova’s younger sister wept as the champion closed in on victory, Jabeur’s husband and trainer, Karim Kamoun, was no more able than his wife to disguise his devastation in the aftermath.

“I think this is the most painful loss of my career,” said Jabeur, through a veil of tears, in her on-court interview. “It’s going to a tough day today for me, but I’m not going to give up. I’m going to come back stronger and win a grand slam medal. 

“It was an amazing tournament for me, I wish I could have continued to the end. I want to thank my team for always believing in me and we’re going to make it one day, I promise you. 

“It’s been a tough journey, but that’s tennis. I promise I’ll come back one day and win this tournament.”

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Minutes earlier, Jabeur had trailed Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed and title favourite, by a set and 4-2, her mission to right the wrongs of Wimbledons past apparently destined to end in heartbreak. Now it was clear this semi-final was far from over.

From that moment on, Sabalenka won just three more games, Jabeur going on to claim a 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-3 victory and a chance to erase the memory of last summer’s agonising final defeat to Elena Rybakina once and for all. 

Was it the finest win of the 28-year-old Tunisian’s career? Quite possibly, although it was hard to tell, given that the win came only a day after Jabeur’s barely less extraordinary victory over Rybakina. The Tunisian has been like an avenging angel at this Wimbledon. Having dished out payback to Rybakina and Sabalenka, her quarter-final conqueror of two years ago, only one more revenge mission stands between her and a first grand slam title. That will come against Marketa Vondrousova, a straight-sets winner over Elina Svitolina in the first semi-final, who has beaten Jabeur twice this year, at the Australian Open and in Indian Wells. 

Yet it so nearly didn’t happen. In a match that followed an eerily similar pattern to her victory over Rybakina, against whom she fell behind after coming within a point of taking the opening set, Jabeur stormed into a 4-2 lead in the first-set tiebreak with a brilliant running forehand winner, only to relinquish the initiative.

Victory would not only have put Sabalenka through to the second major final of her career, following her victory at this year’s Australian Open, but also seen her overtake Iga Swiatek to become the new world No 1. And as the Belarusian continued to send down a blizzard of thunderous serves and groundstrokes to move within two games of her objective, that victory looked certain. Jabeur had other ideas.

“I just wanted to try to break her,” Jabeur said of her pivotal breakthrough in the seventh game of the second set. “It was very difficult for me to return her serve, especially if she was mixing a lot. Even the speed was difficult.  

“I was like, ‘Honestly, I’m not going to give a shit, I’m just going to go in and hit my return.’ It was coming. I was returning much better. 

“She missed some shots that helped me stay in the game. I was fighting for every point. I just waited for a little bit of a chance to get the game, and that’s what happened.”

The artistry of Jabeur’s tennis is such that the earthier aspects of her game are often overlooked. Many reports of her victory over Rybakina suggested she clinched the second set with an acrobatic flourish at the net. In fact, the ball had already been called out by then; the shot that won her the set was a thumping backhand return down the line. As Jabeur observed after that win, she can belt the ball with the best of them when occasion demands, and it was telling that, in another echo of her win over Rybakina, she drew level with Sabalenka courtesy of a similarly meaty backhand return winner.

“I felt like she played a little bit better than me in those key moments,” said Sabalenka. “Everything was going well for me. I just lost it a little bit in the second set, and it was just gone. 

“She was going for crazy shots. I felt like she was doing whatever she wanted, and everything was going in.”

If that appraisal felt a bit like a case of the pot calling the kettle black, given the bruising power of Sabalenka’s own shot-making, it was nonetheless accurate. Down the stretch, Jabeur was inspired. She has given everything to bounce back from the heartbreak she experienced last year, when her loss at Wimbledon was followed by defeat to Swiatek in the US Open final, and as the finish line neared, her spirit and her game soared. 

The decisive breakthrough came in the sixth game, where Sabalenka courageously fought off two break points with some huge serving only for a string of teasing slices from Jabeur to prise an error on a third. Jabeur would not look back. At 2-5, Sabalenka saved a match point with her 10th ace of the afternoon; one game later, Jabeur sealed victory with her third. After a difficult year and a difficult draw, the Tunisian stands on the brink of fulfilling a dream.

“I always believed,” said Jabeur. “Sometimes you would question and doubt if it’s going to happen, if it’s ever going to happen. Being in the last stages, I think it does help you believe more.  

“I’m going to learn a lot from not only [last year’s] Wimbledon’s final but also the US Open final, and give it my best. Maybe this year was all about trying two times and getting it right the third time.”

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