John McEnroe believes it’s not Aryna Sabalenka, but Iga Swiatek, who is the favorite for the 2025 French Open women’s singles title. Swiatek is the three-time defending champion at Roland Garros this year. However, her form in the buildup to the claycourt Major has been uncharacteristically erratic. Meanwhile, Sabalenka is the No. 1 seed in Paris and is in good form, having won the Madrid Open title earlier this month.
McEnroe is serving as an analyst for TNT Sports at the French Open, and he recently spoke at length about Swiatek’s poor recent run of results. For the Pole, the 2024 European claycourt swing so far has been marred by chastening losses to Jelena Ostapenko, Coco Gauff and Danielle Collins. However, the former ATP No. 1 also acknowledged Swiatek’s dominance on the Parisian clay in recent years.
“To me, she’s the greatest clay-court player, obviously, in the women’s game. There’s no question about it. That doesn’t mean she’s gonna win this again, but she was almost unbeatable on this surface. So I’m surprised that she hasn’t won any tournaments since the French (2024 Roland Garros), especially on clay. So something’s not right there. That doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t still call her. If I had to say who’s the favourite. I’d still pick her,” McEnroe said at a TNT Sports event.
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The seven-time Grand Slam singles champion went on to speak about the rest of the women's singles draw, and how players would be very aware that Iga Swiatek is currently vulnerable and prone to drastic dips in form. He also brought up Jelena Ostapenko, who ousted the Pole from the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart in the quarterfinals and now has an astonishing 6-0 win-loss record in the pair's head-to-head.
"Certainly, the other female players out there see that she’s not playing with the same level of confidence. And clearly if she played, say [Jelena] Ostapenko in the round of 16, she’s 0-6, amazingly, against Ostapenko. So she’s probably like, ‘I hope I don’t play her’," the 66-year-old added.
Lastly, John McEnroe named the players apart from Swiatek who have the best chance of contending for the women's singles title at this year's Roland Garros, including reigning World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka.
"But she still to me is the person to beat. And obviously after that, you have the three Americans (Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys) — three of the top 10. You got Sabalenka, but you’ve got the obvious other players that you would suspect will win it if she doesn’t. But I still put her (Swiatek) as the person to beat," McEnroe concluded.
Swiatek has already played her first-round match at the French Open and sealed her progress to the second round, where she is set to face a potentially tricky test.
Iga Swiatek began French Open 2025 campaign with dominant 1R win; faces Emma Raducanu next
Swiatek registered a rather straightforward 6-3, 6-3 win over Rebecca Sramkova in the first round of women's singles action at this year's Roland Garros. The former No. 1 was broken once by the Slovak, but she engineered had ten break points of her own, converting four of them.
In the second round, the WTA No. 5 is slated to lock horns with 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu on Wednesday, May 28. Swiatek should be confident about taking on the Brit, considering her 4-0 win-loss record against her. However, if Raducanu performs at her best, things could get challenging for the Pole.
If Swiatek does prevail, she will go on to face either Sara Bejlek or Jaqueline Cristian in the third round of the French Open.
