French Open 2025: Iga Swiatek’s title defence always felt under threat from Aryna Sabalenka- but Queen of Clay will be ‘back and better’

In the eyes of many seasoned observers, Swiatek was the third favourite for the title behind Sabalenka and American second seed Gauff, who beat French wildcard Lois Boisson in Thursday’s second semi-final.

Swiatek has been nowhere near her dominant best over the past year, failing to reach a final since last year’s French Open triumph and slipping to her lowest ranking since March 2022.

After a chastening defeat in the Italian Open third round, Swiatek’s return to Paris offered positivity.

“I think I already changed my mindset before this tournament,” said Swiatek shortly after her first French Open defeat since 2021.

“Losing early in Rome gave me some time and perspective.”

The former long-time world number one looked more like her old self as she rolled through her opening three matches without dropping a set.

When a tougher test arrived against Elena Rybakina in the last 16, Swiatek fought back from losing the opening set 6-1 and answered more of the lingering questions around her form.

She showed similar resilience in the opening set against Sabalenka, recovering from 4-1 down to force the set back on serve.

Altering her return position helped Swiatek fight back from a poor start, where she was overwhelmed by Sabalenka’s power, and take the match into a decider.

However, the fifth seed did not have the capability – or perhaps belief – to sustain her level and rolled over in a 22-minute third set.

Overall, though, Swiatek felt she had positives to take from the past fortnight.

“I played some quality matches,” said Swiatek, who has still won 32 of her 42 matches this season.

“Now it’s probably not the best time to look at the wider perspective.

“Probably it wasn’t a bad tournament, but obviously not the result I wanted.”