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By Giri Nathan
[vc_empty_space height="15px"]Last week we dug into the top Roland-Garros prospects on the men’s side, in the deafening absence of Rafael Nadal. Today we’ll be looking at the women’s draw, where there is also injury ambiguity around the defending champ, though fortunately a less severe case. World No. 1 Iga Swiatek, whose world-eating has finally slowed in recent months, retired from her quarterfinal in Rome last week with an acute right thigh injury. “It was pretty sudden. At the beginning I didn’t really know if it was serious or not,” Swiatek later said of the pain that made her withdraw early in the deciding set of that match. “We did an examination with the physio afterwards. It shouldn’t be anything serious.” Swiatek has been seen this week practicing on the grounds in Paris. (The tournament even cut a weirdly dramatic trailer for her practice session. Personally I would’ve been okay just watching her loop forehands for 10 minutes.) As long as Swiatek’s read on her injury is accurate, the 2020 and 2022 champ at Roland-Garros remains the favorite this year, though not a prohibitive one, which speaks to the quality of her peers in a nascent WTA Big Three. Of the bunch, Swiatek’s game is the most straightforwardly suited to tennis in Paris: That big topspin, baffling foot speed, and intuitive point construction would make her hero Rafa proud. A title in Stuttgart and a runner-up finish in Madrid prove that Swiatek’s clay game remains sharp. But her 28–6 season has also included losses on clay to her two main rivals. That makes this fortnight a little spicier.