Iga Swiatek is reticent about stretching her culinary skills too far after conceding she only really knows one simple yet publicly divisive pasta dish.
Fortunately, success opens doors for a six-time Grand Slam champion, one of which includes having a chef come to do the cooking at her Paris accommodation during Roland-Garros.
The Pole had enough on her hands finding a way past wily Czech lefty Sara Bejlek 6-2, 6-3 in the second round, so the thought of retreating to her off-site haven and have someone else whip up a post-match feast was a welcome reward.
Though she has made no secret of recalibrating between matches, taking a book to a park or making a quick side trip to the likes of the Palace of Versailles, this year satisfying the palate is her off-court French focus.
“Honestly, this year is more about cuisine, I would say, because actually I have a chef in the evening from Roland-Garros,” Swiatek said. “You know, he's I think working at this restaurant next to [Court] Simone-Mathieu.
“So I would say this year I'm exploring a little bit healthy French cuisine – not French fries, though. No, I mean, he has the skills. I have no talent. I would just make a mess in the kitchen.”
During her run to a maiden Wimbledon crown last year, Swiatek revealed a traditional Polish dish from childhood, makaron z truskawkami – pasta with strawberries – was her favourite meal to cook.
She reminded the world her cooking skills hadn’t developed in an on-court interview at this year’s Australian Open.
“I’m a terrible cook. Honestly the only thing I can do is pasta with strawberries. Half of the world is hating on it,” she said. “I don’t get why. Honestly that’s the only thing I can do.”
There’d be no such dish on the menu during a major, much less requested of a French chef in the house.
With meal preparations left to the expert, Swiatek was left to ply her expertise to her march towards the second week in Paris.
It remained on track on Court Philippe-Chatrier but not without a glitch after the wily Bejlek’s variety caused more than a few issues.
The Pole did not have it all her own way but stepped up when it mattered to improve her record against southpaws to 40-5 across all levels.
Searching for her first claycourt title since Roland-Garros two years ago, the third seed left plenty of room to iron out kinks on serve following the 94-minute affair on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
Of the eight games the 24-year-old has conceded across two rounds, six were against her serve, including when she tried to close out the opening set against the Czech.
Fortunately for Swiatek, her most dominant game on serve came while shutting the door on this year’s Abu Dhabi champion, a love hold setting an all-Polish third-round showdown after Magda Linette denied former champion Jelena Ostapenko.
“She was pretty good in defence, and I had many opportunities to attack,” Swiatek said. “Sometimes even too many, you know? So when you attack, like most of the balls, of course, you're going to make more mistakes, because it's easier to push the ball back than to actually add a lot of energy to it and try to open the court …
“Pretty unpredictable, I would say, but I didn't mind. I wanted to be flexible and adjust and play my game. Sometimes I had some moments where the mistakes happened, but at the end I feel like I was the one that had control over the game, and it was up to me if I'm going to finish these points or make a mistake. In important moments I was focused and patient enough to play solid.”
While Iga's serve really let her down this match, the rest of her game was solid. She returned well, and extended rallies with a lot of patience something that often goes missing when her serve lets her down but not today she kept her frustrations at bay even despite getting broken a few times.
Most notably she felt comfortable enough to throw in a bunch of dropshots in one game. Something she used to do a lot more of, but which Wiktorowski got her out of and didn't nurture.
Definitely will need to improve her serve, but she's not now got a chance to avenge her loss to Linette in Miami if she plays like she did in the first set of that tournament it could be a quick one.
Thank you Magda Linette for taking out Jelena Ostapenko.
I will say that having 2 Polish players play each other at Roland Garros for the fist time is pretty cool.
Hopefully it'll be nice and straight forward for Iga because the challenges ahead will only get harder, but we take it one match at a time.
Jazda!
42 - Iga Swiatek has become the player with the most wins in Women’s Singles at Roland Garros after her first 45 main draw matches in the Open Era (42, equalling Chris Evert). Legendary.
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