Article by Rickee Bhardwaj
With Naomi Osaka’s withdrawal from the French Open dominating the headlines: it has sent shockwaves through the tennis world. Japanese favourite Osaka blamed the pressure of the media and her own struggles with depression and anxiety as her reasons for withdrawal. It has rightfully brought the issue of player’s mental health to the forefront and many of her peers have supported her decision. 
In her statement she said: ‘The truth is that I have suffered long bouts of depression since the US Open 2018 and I have a really hard time coping with that. Here in Paris I was already feeling vulnerable and anxious so I thought it was better to exercise self-care and skip the press conferences.’ She ended by saying that she was taking some time away from the court; now the tennis fandom is split with many seeing it as her duty to attend press conferences and others able to sympathise with the mental toll the hectic tour can take on these athletes.
While the debate rages on, focus has now turned to the existing women’s draw to see who will be victorious at this year’s Roland Garros. From current world number one, Aussie Ash Barty to reigning champ Iga Swiatek the women’s draw looks as unpredictable as ever. The last woman to successfully defend her title at the French Open was way back in 2007 and it was the legendary Justine Henin. So with history very much against them, who will lift the trophy in a fortnight’s time?
Swiatek is in fantastic form having recently won the Rome Masters in a 6-0, 6-0 defeat over Karolina Pliskova, the first double bagel final in the championship’s history. She is going into the tournament with confidence and had a relatively easy first round match with a win over her best friend Kaja Juvan, 6-0, 7-5. Next she plays Rebecca Peterson of Sweden.
Iga has spoken openly about using a sports psychologist to ensure she is mentally ready as well as physically and she always credits her team for allowing her to succeed. At the tender age of 20 and with others like Osaka showing just how tough the tour can be, Iga is setting herself up to keep her head in the game. Her on court game also continues to excel with a world class return and a forehand and backhand to rival the greats. She did however lose to Barty in the recent Madrid Masters 7-5, 6-4, a loss that could give Barty a slight mental edge.
Barty is also technically defending her 2019 French Open win as the COVID restrictions did not allow her to compete in last year’s postponed tournament. This may give her the added motivation to push forward on the red dirt: all the way to the final. Although it is rather surprising to see, her illustrious career is short on clay court victories with a 16-13 record on the surface between 2012 and 2018. Moreover, she has also openly discussed her preference of the grass with her game style much more suited to these surfaces.
Despite this, Barty has also come off a recent clay court win in Stuttgart and reached the final in Madrid, losing to an in-form Aryna Sabalenka 6-0, 6-3, 6-4. She was then unfortunately forced to withdraw from the Italian Open due to an arm injury.
In her first round match at the French she cast doubts about her form after she lost the second set to American Bernarda Pera before coming back to win in the third. She had a medical time out and looked to be out of sorts during the match but hopefully she will be able to put any injury concerns to bed in her next round.
If the two titans are to meet it will most likely be in the semi-final and promises to be a fantastic fight to the final.
