PARIS -- Defending French Open champion Iga Swiatek picked up right where she left off last year in winning the title: running yet another opponent this way and that on the red clay of Roland Garros in a straight-sets victory Monday.
Her best friend on the tennis circuit, Kaja Juvan, was the victim on Court Philippe Chatrier this time as Swiatek emphatically kicked off her campaign to become the first woman since Justine Henin in 2007 to defend the French Open title.
Playing on her 20th birthday, Swiatek treated herself to a 6-0, 7-5 victory -- her eighth straight-sets win in a row at Roland Garros, having also not dropped a set in winning the trophy last year as an unseeded 19-year-old.
Another former Grand Slam winner didn't fare as well as Swiatek on Monday.
Bianca Andreescu, the 2019 US Open champion, is out in the first round after losing a 9-7 third set.
The sixth-seeded Andreescu's second appearance in the main draw at Roland Garros ended with a 6-7 (1), 7-6 (2), 9-7 defeat against 85th-ranked Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia. Zidansek had previously been 0-2 at the French Open.
Andreescu withdrew before her quarterfinal last week in Strasbourg with an abdominal injury.
Swiatek had no such concerns coming into the tournament.
In pre-tournament practice on the clay, Swiatek has tested her high-kicking forehand and double-handed backhand against the master of those arts at Roland Garros: Rafael Nadal.
Like the 13-time men's champion, Swiatek used those tools to devastating effect against Juvan, particularly during a dominant first set in which Swiatek gave up just three points on serve -- one of them a double fault.
Poland's first Grand Slam singles champion faced more resistance in the second set as the 101st-ranked Slovenian settled and Swiatek cooled off.
"She didn't give me any birthday gifts," Swiatek said.
But Swiatek wasn't in the gift-giving mood, either. She secured the win with a snapped cross-court backhand at the net on her fourth match point that Juvan hit wide.
They hugged each other warmly at the net. Swiatek then gamely played ball, waving her hands like an orchestra conductor as on-court interviewer Marion Bartoli led the crowd, thinned by coronavirus restrictions, in a somewhat squawky rendition of "Happy Birthday."
Swiatek's next opponent is 60th-ranked Swedish player Rebecca Peterson, whose best showings in Paris were second-round exits in 2018 and 2019.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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