PARIS — Iga Swiatek underlined her credentials Saturday as a French Open favorite after serving up double bagels again with a 6-0, 6-0 win, but the world No. 1 refused to be swept up in the “Iga’s Bakery” social media craze.
Swiatek thrashed Wang Xinyu without dropping a game to cruise into the fourth round, the second time in a month she had won by that scoreline after beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Rome.
The 22-year-old Polish player has dropped only eight games in three matches in Paris this year, while nine opponents have lost at least one set 6-0 to her this year.
Saturday’s result was no different, as she beat Wang in 51 minutes. But when a question about “Iga’s Bakery” was put to Swiatek after her victory, her smile vanished before the top seed said she wanted to remain respectful to her opponents.
“Look, I don’t want to really talk about that. I really get why people do that because it’s fun and tennis is entertainment and everything,” Swiatek said. “But from the players’ point of view, I want to be respectful to my opponents. You don’t see the stuff that is behind the scenes. Sometimes it’s not easy to play such matches, and sometimes it’s not easy also for the opponents.
“I don’t want to talk about the bakery. Twitter can talk about it, but I’m just going to be focused on tennis.”
Swiatek will next face Lesia Tsurenko, who lost 6-2, 6-0 to her in Rome last month. Tsurenko described playing Swiatek as “one of the biggest challenges on tour”.
“I just had a match against her in Rome, which was good just to feel how she’s playing and to feel the speed of her shots,” Tsurenko said. “It was a good lesson for me, so I will try to play better this time.”