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She had beaten the Spaniard in under an hour,
losing just one game, at this year's Australian Open but Swiatek
had a less than perfect run-up to Paris, retiring from her
Italian Open quarter-final after suffering a thigh injury two
weeks ago.
The 21-year-old triple Grand Slam winner was broken twice in her
first three service games as a determined Bucsa, ranked 70th in
the world, mixed it up and initially succeeded in throwing her
opponent off balance.
"I just felt more tense, for sure," Swiatek said. "But I managed
to turn that around and not think about all the stuff that is
usually bothering when you play your first match."
"You hear a bit more, you have to get used to the stuff
surrounding you. I just felt like I needed to gain some
information to play more solid. I did that."
The top seed heeded the early wake-up call and bounced back
towards the business end of the set, breaking back to seal it.
The Pole, who began her 61st week at the top of the WTA rankings
and is the favorite in Paris, snatched another break at the
start of the second set with a thundering crosscourt forehand
winner and never looked back.
She made amends for her first-set wobble with a bagel as she
looks to add to her 2020 and 2022 French Open titles and protect
her top spot from world number two Aryna Sabalenka.
"Of course I feel pressure, we all feel pressure," said Swiatek,
who turns 22 on Wednesday.
"If I said I don't, I would be lying. I try to work with it and
play my game. The most important thing in tennis right now is to
cope with it."
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Toby Davis and
Christian Radnedge)
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