John McEnroe reveals how he relates to Iga Swiatek as he names his French Open favourite

Ewan West 26 May 2025 8:44 PM

Iga Swiatek and John McEnroe

Tennis legend John McEnroe has weighed in on Iga Swiatek’s title chances at the 2025 French Open as he revealed how he can relate to the Polish star.

Swiatek is seeking her fourth successive title and fifth overall crown at the French Open, having not reached a final since her triumph at last year’s event.

The five-time Grand Slam champion is seeded fifth at Roland Garros after a shock third round exit at the Italian Open saw her drop to her lowest ranking position since February 2022.

The 23-year-old revealed ahead of her French Open title defence that she has been struggling with perfectionism during what has been a challenging season.

“I don’t think it’s possible [to not be] a perfectionist, but for sure there are ways to control it a bit more,” she told the media in Paris.

“But lately, when I made some mistakes on the court, I focused on them a little bit too much.

“I needed to realise that by myself, even though my team kind of told me that it’s happening.”

Speaking at a TNT Sports event attended by Tennis365, McEnroe was asked if he can relate to Swiatek chasing perfection and struggling to find her best level.

“Oh, I can definitely relate to it about the last six, seven years of my career. And it gets increasingly frustrating,” the former world No 1 said.

“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 [in 2024], especially on clay.

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“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.

“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’.

“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 [Aryna] 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.”

Swiatek defeated world No 42 Rebecca Sramkova 6-3, 6-3 in her opening round match at Roland Garros to improve her record at the tournament to a staggering 36-2. She will take on 41st-ranked Emma Raducanu in the second round.

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