One day after her 22nd birthday, defending champion Iga Swiatek booked safe passage into the third round of Roland Garros on Thursday, as the World No.1 from Poland defeated 102nd-ranked Claire Liu of the United States 6-4, 6-0.
"I was able to play a little bit better in the second set, and I kind of used first set to get more information and get into the rhythm, but Claire played pretty well," Swiatek said afterwards. "I'm happy that I'm into the third round and I have a chance to play more matches here."
French Open: Scores | Order of play | Draw
Swiatek was joined in the third round by 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu of Canada, who bested American wildcard Emma Navarro 6-1, 6-4 in 1 hour and 9 minutes. If both Swiatek and Andreescu win their third-round matches, they would meet in the Round of 16.
Here are some key numbers surrounding Swiatek and Andreescu's wins:
30: Top seed Swiatek earned her 30th match-win of the year by defeating Liu in 1 hour and 29 minutes on Court Philippe Chatrier. Swiatek is currently tied with Elena Rybakina for the second-most match-wins on tour in 2023; only Aryna Sabalenka has won more matches this season (31).
Tiramisu & Lego
— Iga Świątek (@iga_swiatek) May 31, 2023
Name a better duo ☺️☺️
Thank you Team 🫶🏼 pic.twitter.com/S0zYQuNUYW
3: Swiatek, who will star in Part 2 of Netflix's Break Point, picked up her third win in three meetings with Liu, and her second victory over the American this year. This March, Swiatek claimed a 6-0, 6-1 win over Liu at Indian Wells.
92: Swiatek, the Roland Garros champion in 2020 and 2022, now has a 23-2 win-loss record at the tournament. Her 92.0% winning percentage at this event is the third-best in the Open Era (since 1968), behind only Margaret Court (95.2%) and Chris Evert (92.3%).
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37: Swiatek is also up to 37-1 against players ranked outside the Top 50 in Grand Slam play. Her only Grand Slam loss to a player ranked lower than No.50 was to Viktorija Golubic in the first round of 2019 Wimbledon.
11.1 - Following a 6-4 6-0 win over Claire Liu, Iga Swiatek has now surpassed Steffi Graf (10.7%) for percentage of sets in women's singles Grand Slams won with a 6-0 scoreline, at 11.1% (17/153) - min. 100 sets played. Dominant.#RolandGarros | @rolandgarros @WTA @WTA_insider pic.twitter.com/DnjuwSXVON
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) June 1, 2023
24: On Thursday, Swiatek saw a double-break lead at 3-0 in the first set disappear as Liu pulled back to parity at 3-3. However, Swiatek cranked a forehand return winner to break again for a 4-3 lead, and she took the opener from there. All told, Swiatek captured the last seven games of the clash, with her 24 winners doubling Liu's 12.
2-0: Swiatek will face China’s Wang Xinyu in the third round, after 80th-ranked Wang defeated Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson 7-6(5), 6-2 on Thursday. This will be their first tour-level meeting, but Swiatek went 2-0 against Wang in the juniors, including a narrow win in the 2018 Junior Wimbledon semifinals.
BIANCA ANDREESCU GETS IT DONE IN STRAIGHT SETS!🇨🇦 #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/BzDHmHbXK8
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) June 1, 2023
86: In the last second-round match of the week, Andreescu came back from 4-2 down in the second set to beat Navarro and reach the Roland Garros third round for the first time. Andreescu won 86 percent of points when she came to the net (12 of 14) en route to victory.
10: Before Thursday, former US Open champion Andreescu had never passed the second round at any of the other Grand Slam events -- Australian Open, Roland Garros or Wimbledon -- in nine previous main-draw appearances at those three Slams combined. On her tenth attempt at one of those majors, she garnered a breakthrough outside of New York City.
0-2: Andreescu will face former Top 25 player Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine in the third round. Andreescu and Tsurenko have met twice previously, with Tsurenko winning both of those matches via Andreescu retirements, including in Hua Hin earlier this year.