Birthday girl Swiatek launches title defence with win over ‘best friend’

Iga Swiatek and Slovenia's Kaja Juvan speak after their first round match - Reuters

PARIS (REUTERS): Birthday girl Iga Swiatek faced some stiff resistance in the second set before the Pole went on to beat best friend Kaja Juvan of Slovenia 6-0,7-5 to launch her French Open title defence on Monday.

Celebrating her 20th birthday, Swiatek got a warm hug before the start of the match from Juvan, who is her friend from junior ranks, but the Pole did not return any favours once they got on the opposite sides of the net at Court Philippe-Chatrier.

“It’s never easy to play against your best friend,” Swiatek told reporters. 

“You just try to block this friendship for two hours, just focus on the game. I think I’m doing that pretty well. It’s nice to have that skill. So, I was just trying to treat Kaja as any other girl, as any other opponent, because in sports when we are on court you can’t have, like, thoughts that are going to make your game more soft.” 

Swiatek did not seem keen to spend too much time on court and came out all guns blazing from the start on a windy day at Roland Garros.