Clay queen Iga Swiatek eyes gold; Djoko, Rafa could meet in Rd 2

Iga Swiatek during a training session in Paris recently. Pic/Getty Images

Iga Swiatek is returning to a happy hunting ground as she seeks a first Olympic crown to add to her four French Open titles at Roland Garros.

The Polish World No. 1 has been dominant on the red clay of Paris, winning four of the past five tournaments and is unbeaten there since a quarter-final loss to Greece's Maria Sakkari in 2021.

The five-time Grand Slam champion, who won the US Open in 2022, is seeking to go much further than she did at the Tokyo Games in 2021, where she lost to Paula Badosa in the second round.

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Swiatek, 23, has had plenty of time to prepare for the Paris Olympics after her early exit from Wimbledon, where she lost in the third round to Yulia Putintseva.

The painful defeat on the grass at the All England Club brought Swiatek's 21-match winning streak to a shuddering halt.

Meanwhile, Grand Slam record-breakers Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal were placed on an Olympics second-round collision course in the draw for the Paris Games on Thursday.

Nadal, a singles gold medallist at the 2008 Olympics, is playing in his final Games having also won doubles gold in Rio in 2016.

Serbia's Djokovic, a 24-time Grand Slam champion and top seed in Paris following the withdrawal of World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, begins his campaign against Australia's Matthew Ebden.

Spain's Nadal, who has won 14 of his 22 Grand Slams on the clay of Roland Garros, faces Hungary's Marton Fucsovics in his opener.

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