Roland Garros: Osaka makes fast start, set potential clash round two clash with Swiatek

Naomi Osaka was forced to battle hard for the first Grand Slam win of her comeback from maternity leave, holding off a late charge from Lucia Bronzetti to triumph 6-1, 4-6, 7-5 in the first round of Roland Garros.

The Former World No.1 Osaka led 4-0 in the third set before No.67th ranked Bronzetti rattled off five straight games to lead 5-4. In the on-court interview afterwards, the four-time major champion explained that she had been “really nervous, so I got pretty tight.”

However, Osaka managed to grit out the last three games in a row to notch her first match win in Paris since 2021, and her first victory in the three matches she has played this year which have gone the distance; she previously lost in three sets to Karolina Pliskova in Brisbane and Liudmila Samsonova in Madrid. Next up in Paris will be either No.1 seed Iga Swiatek or qualifier Leolia Jeanjean.

If Osaka does end up playing two-time defending champion Swiatek, who is on a 12-match winning streak after claiming the titles in Rome and Madrid, she will head into the match with a positive mindset.

“I’m honestly really excited,” she said. “I watched her a lot when I was pregnant. And honestly, I think it’s an honor to play her in the French Open, because she’s won more than once here. It’s a very big honor and challenge for me.

“In a weird way, I definitely do feel like it’s a test to see where I’m at, but I wouldn’t say I have low expectations of myself. I’m a person that kind of thinks that I can win every match that I play. That’s gotten me this far. I would never play a match thinking lowly of myself.”