World No. 1 Iga Swiatek looked in strong form on her return to action as she eased past Magdalena Frech at the Poland Open.
Swiatek is playing in her home country after seeing her record-breaking 37-match winning streak ended in the third round at Wimbledon earlier this month.
She only dropped three games as she beat Frech 6-1 6-2 in 74 minutes to set up a second-round clash with lucky loser Gabriela Lee.
Swiatek is playing the clay event in Warsaw ahead of the North American hard-court swing, which gets under way on August 1 with tournaments in San Jose and Washington DC. Swiatek looks set to miss both events and start her US Open preparations at the National Bank Open in Toronto on August 8.
The world No. 1 has been dominant on clay this season, winning her last 17 matches and lifting titles in Stuttgart and Rome before powering to her second French Open.
The last player to beat Swiatek on clay is Maria Sakkari in the quarter-finals of the 2021 French Open.
Swiatek did not face a break point against Frech and won five games in a row to seal the first set in 30 minutes.
A double fault from Frech at 2-2 in the second set handed Swiatek a break and she served out to love to seal the win.
Swiatek could face fifth seed Caroline Garcia in the quarter-finals.
World No. 45 Garcia is the highest-ranked player left in the draw after Swiatek.
While in Poland, Swiatek has also hosted the ‘Swiatek & Friends for Ukraine’ charity exhibition event.
Swiatek was joined by former world No. 2 Agnieszka Radwanska, Ukrainian world No. 43 Elina Svitolina, former Ukrainian ATP player Sergiy Stakhovsky and rising Polish junior Martyn Pawelski, playing mixed doubles and singles.
The event raised over 400,000 euros for three organisations that have worked to provide relief and aid to Ukrainian children.