French Open: Swiatek To Continue Title Defense On birthday

On her birthday Friday, Iga Swiatek, the world number one, will vie for a win at the French Open, aiming for a third consecutive title in Paris.

Four-time major winner Swiatek, who turns 23 on the day of her third-round match at Roland Garros, continues her campaign against 42nd-ranked Czech Marie Bouzkova.

A three-hour, three-set thriller on Wednesday saw Swiatek dig deep to save a match point against Naomi Osaka.

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Overcoming that challenge, the Pole extended her winning streak at the French Open to 16 matches. Now, she’s on course to become only the second woman in the Open Era to win three straight French Open titles.

Also in the women’s singles draw on Friday, American third seed Coco Gauff takes on Ukrainian 30th seed Dayana Yastremska in the opening match on Court Philippe Chatrier following two comfortable straight-set wins for the US Open champion.

Elsewhere, Tunisian eighth seed Ons Jabeur meets Canadian 31st seed Leylah Fernandez, while Czech fifth seed Marketa Vondrousova faces France’s Chloe Paquet.

In the men’s competition, Italian second seed Jannik Sinner resumes his campaign against Russian Pavel Kotov as he chases a second successive Grand Slam triumph following victory at the Australian Open.

The night session match sees Spanish third seed Carlos Alcaraz, a semi-finalist last year, face American 27th seed Sebastian Korda.

Russian sixth seed Andrey Rublev plays Italian Matteo Arnaldi, and Greek ninth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas comes up against China’s Zhang Zhizhen.

Rain once again interrupted play on the outer courts at Roland Garros on Thursday, when organisers took the decision to ban fans drinking alcohol in the stands in a bid to end unruly behaviour.

The schedule could again be disrupted on Friday, with more rain forecast for the afternoon, and the wet weather is not expected to end until Sunday.