Hailey Baptiste saves two match points, beats 2021 champion Barbora Krejčíková at Roland-Garros

Hailey Baptiste, the No. 26 seed, beat the 2021 Roland-Garros champion Barbora Krejčíková 6-7(7), 7-6(6), 6-2 on Sunday to reach the second round in Paris. The 24-year-old American saved two consecutive match points in the second-set tiebreak before pulling away in the third. She plays the Chinese Xiyu Wang next.

The match turned at 2-0 down in the second set. “I would say that was definitely a little bit of a turning point,” Baptiste said. “I think my energy dropped after I got broken in that first game. I knew I had to pick it up somewhere. I definitely needed to raise my energy and intensity. My mentality, I just needed to be a bit more aggressive, and that’s really what I started focusing on pretty much until the last point.“

The match-point saves followed shortly afterwards. “It was a very close first two sets,” Baptiste said. “I had set points in both sets that I wasn’t able to convert, but I just stayed tough. Saved a couple of match points in the second, and somehow got over the finish line.”

I just refuse to let myself be the reason that I lose a match.

What was different from the first set – where Baptiste had also held set point and lost the tiebreak – was less a tactical adjustment than a refusal. Asked what has changed about her in the past year, she highligted : “I just refuse to let myself be the reason that I lose a match. I think it was the first set, I missed a short, easy volley in the net to go up set point. In my head I would love to break a racquet and scream, but I know that’s not going to help me. Me maybe laughing it off or just being super positive immediately after, it’s made a huge difference for me. I’m able to kind of just forget about it right away.”

Roland-Garros 2026’s opening Sunday was the hot one – five matches across the men’s draw needed five sets, two players retired with heat-related issues, and the on-court temperature on Chatrier touched 33°C. Baptiste, who hits with high-bouncing topspin and a heavy kick serve, played for three hours and did not complain. “I definitely like the heat,” she said. “My ball is going through the court a lot quicker, and the kick serve and heavy forehand is jumping a lot higher. So I’m not complaining. It was difficult physically playing a three-hour match in that heat, but I think that it was also a part of the reason why I won the match.”

This is the form Baptiste has been in for a month. A few weeks ago in Madrid, she beat the world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and reached her first WTA 1000 semi-final. Today she beat the 2021 Roland-Garros champion. She is playing better than she ever has, and, by her own account, believing in it more clearly than she ever has. “I feel like I’m old enough and experienced enough to know how I should play and know what’s right when I’m on the court,” she said. “I really think I should just trust my gut whenever I’m on the court.”