Iga Swiatek continued her dominance on the clay court as she defeated Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-1 to lift her fourth title at the Roland-Garros.
With this win, Swiatek became only the third woman in history to win three French Open in a row joining Monica Seles and Justine Henin to achieve a feat. The 23-year-old is now three French Open titles away to equal record of seven women’s singles titles at Roland Garros set by Chris Evert.
Heading into the final, Swiatek was seen as a clear favorite given her form and recent battles with Paolini. The reality was no different as the Polish star cruised to a fairly straightforward victory at Court Philippe-Chatrier. The pair exchanged breaks at the start of the first set. Swiatek never looked back as she cruised to a 6-2 victory in the first set. The second set was even more comfortable for the 23-year-old as she dropped only one game to take the set 6-1.
“It was an emotional win because I felt, you know, a lot of stress yesterday and today in the morning. And I knew if I’m going to just focus on tennis, I can kind of fight through it, and at the end it all went how I wanted. So I just felt really proud of myself.” said the World No.1 after the game.
Swiatek survived a scare against Naomi Osaka in her second-round match where she dropped her only set of the tournament. She was not really tested afterward en route to the final. She defeated World No.6 Markéta Vondroušová 6-0, 6-2 in the quarter-finals and beat Coco Gauff by 6-2, 6-4 in the semi-finals.
Paolini herself enjoyed a successful tournament, and she rose to a career-high WTA ranking of 7.
“Iga is playing unbelievable here; she’s taking the balls early and can defend really well,” Paolini said. “To play her here is something different. She’s already won four titles at 23 years old; these numbers are not normal. I’ve never played someone with this intensity before in my life” she added.
Paolini will now have to turn her focus on Sunday when she will play alongside her fellow Italian Sara Errani to take on Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova in the Women’s Doubles final.
Swiatek’s attention would now be on Wimbledon starting on 1 July 2024. The grass is the only court that World No.1 has yet to lift the title.
“I felt last year I could adapt quicker to grass, but we need to take care of my physicality too,” Swiatek said. “We’ll see what the plans are. But the biggest progress I can make on grass is using my serve better, but I don’t expect a lot as tennis is different on grass. Let’s see; I’ll work hard to play better there.”
Mohd Faisal Hakak is a sports author from Kashmir. He likes to keep tabs on the sporting world with a keen interest in football, motorsports, NBA, and other marquee sports. He is a science graduate from Islamia College Srinagar.
