Queen Of Clay Iga Swiatek's Reign Under Threat At Roland Garros

Iga Swiatek has reigned supreme at Roland Garros since winning the Grand Slam for the first time as a teenager in 2020, but a difficult past year means she is far from the obvious choice this time for the title. Swiatek dropped to a ranking of fifth this week, ending a 173-week stay inside the top two which now likely means she faces a tougher path to a fifth French Open crown in six attempts. She is without a title since winning for the third time in a row in Paris last June, the first woman to do so since Justine Henin lifted the trophy from 2005-07.

"It hasn't been easy. For sure I'm doing something wrong. So I need to just regroup and kind of change some stuff," Swiatek said after a third-round loss to Danielle Collins in Rome.

That put a swift end to Swiatek's title defence at the Foro Italico and came on the heels of a 6-1, 6-1 defeat by Coco Gauff in the Madrid semi-finals.

Swiatek has advanced to the last eight or better at seven of the eight events she's played in this year but has yet to reach a final, squandering a match point against eventual champion Madison Keys in the Australian Open semi-finals.

Her struggles can be traced back towards the end of last season when she missed the Asian swing citing "personal matters".

Only later was it revealed that she had been absent because of a one-month ban for testing positive for the banned heart drug trimetazidine.

She has consistently denied knowingly doping, saying it came from contaminated non-prescription medication to help her sleep.

Swiatek called it the "worst experience of my life" and said the incident caused "tremendous stress and anxiety".

Authorities accepted her contamination explanation and she returned at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, but other issues