Roland Garros 2025: Emma Raducanu to face four-time champion Iga Swiatek after first round win
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Emma Raducanu made a winning start to her campaign at this year’s Roland Garros with a hard-fought win over China’s Wang Xinyu.
On her first match back in Paris for three years, Raducanu knocked out the world No.43 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 in two hours and 43 minutes.
Despite calling for a medical timeout at the end of the first set, Raducanu showed her quality on the clay, particularly on the return where she broke Wang nine times.
"I was struggling today," Raducanu said safter the match. "She's a tough opponent, she can take the racket out of your hand. I was happy to find a way, opening rounds are never easy. I haven't been here in three years and I think it was a combination of things but I'm happy to have got through. I think my character, heart and fight came through today and I'm proud of that."
Into the second round, Raducanu now faces one of the toughest challenges in the sport up against four-time champion and former world No.1 Iga Swiatek, who beat Rebecca Sramkova in straight sets.
While Swiatek hasn’t been in her usual formidable form on the clay, the Pole has won their previous five meetings. They most recently played in the third round of this year's Australian Open.
Raducanu will have the chance to get her first victory against the five-time major champion later in the week.
It was a clash of very similar game styles between Raducanu and Wang, both big-hitting baseliners who like to go after their opponent’s serves – leading to five breaks in the first set.
The British No.2 led by a break from the opening game and then later had the chance to serve out the set at 5-4, but the world No.43 kept fighting back.
However, Wang particularly seemed to find it hard to get the rhythm on serve in the cool Paris conditions and Raducanu fought her way to a third break in six games after the Chinese star made a key error facing her second break point of the game.
There was a moment of worry for British fans as Raducanu took a medical timeout, but the 23-year-old came back out firing – punching a forehand winner down the line to hold to love and take a one set advantage.
Wang managed to turn the match around in the second set. Having missed out on a break point in the opening game of the set, Raducanu’s intensity seemed to drop, and Wang capitalised by winning four straight games for a 5-1 lead.
With the set seemingly lost, the Briton showed great spirit to battle her way back to 5-4 but got a bit tight at the wrong moment. Locked at deuce, Wang struck two forehand winners into either corner of the court to force a decider.
Despite losing the set, Raducanu had rediscovered her energy and came out with a point to prove in the third. The former world No.10 set the tone with three straight breaks and was dominating the points against a tiring opponent.
It was a slightly nervy end to the set as Wang recovered to 5-3, but a fourth break of the set off a double fault sealed a much-deserved win for the British star.
Later in the day, Katie Boulter got her first win at Roland Garros in three sets against Carole Monnet, while Jacob Fearnley saw off 2015 champion Stan Wawrinka. Keep up with all the results and updates from Roland Garros
