![\"Photo](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/581e5e7b45badde7c80c52cc68dd7a64.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nIga Swiatek had to work hard to get through her first match at the Italian Open on Friday, coming through a tough opener against Caty McNally.<\/p>\n
Still getting back to full fitness after withdrawing from her second match in Madrid due to illness, Swiatek needed three sets to beat the American.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
The world number one took the opening set before McNally fought back to force a decider, where Swiatek pulled away late for a 6-1, 6-7, 6-3 win.<\/p>\n
By her own high standards, it\u2019s been a slow start to the season. She hasn\u2019t reached a semifinal yet and is still looking for her first title of the year.<\/p>\n
This is Swiatek\u2019s last tournament before Roland Garros, so she\u2019ll be hoping to put some wins together and build confidence ahead of the French Open.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Photo by Robert Prange\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Swiatek reflects on her preparation for Roland Garros<\/p>\n
When asked how she feels about her game heading into Roland Garros, Swiatek was honest:<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, for sure I wanted to play more matches.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that I feel like I\u2019m lacking. I want to play more. There are some moments on the match where you can see I\u2019m a little bit rusty with playing points.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I need more matches to gain some confidence in different situations. I\u2019m happy that I won this one today \u2019cause it gives me another chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
This match against McNally marked only her fifth appearance of the clay season across three tournaments.<\/p>\n
Iga Swiatek shares her thoughts after her Rome first-round win<\/p>\n
Reflecting on her match against McNally, Swiatek said: \u201cFor sure not an easy first match. The conditions were kind of heavy.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ball was flying slow. So we had many, like, long rallies, many moments where you could create a lot on the court.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was really happy with the first set, then I made some mistakes. Also, Caty, I felt like she was playing one more ball in, really grinding in defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cI needed to be patient. I\u2019m happy at the end of the match, I was solid, and I used the right balls to attack, but was also patient enough to stay in the rally.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swiatek is seeded fourth at this year\u2019s Italian Open and is a three-time former champion in Rome.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Iga Swiatek had to work hard to get through her first match at the Italian Open on Friday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[16678,2660,33366,99,428],"class_list":["post-633248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-caty-mcnally","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-roland-garros","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}