‘Perfectionist’ Iga Swiatek on a high before French Open defence

"From the beginning I felt that she may be a little bit nervous, and I wanted to use that and actually play as many games with that vibe as I can," said Swiatek. "But it's not easy to win the first set 6-0, because you always have in the back of the mind that your opponent may start playing better and they can change the tactics completely, and then you have to adjust and then you're going to start worrying." She was so focused she had not realised her opponent had not won a game. "When I was playing I didn't even know what was the score," admitted the 15th seed. "When my coach told me it was 6-0, 6-0, I was, like, Really? Isn't that a mistake?" "I will just quickly forget about today," said Pliskova, the former world number one, who was playing in her third consecutive Rome final. "She was having maybe a moment of her life "But you can see her results on clay, they are great. It's not just like, you know, luck."

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