For the first time in her 62-week reign as the Hologic WTA Tour's No.1 player, that position could have been snatched away during Roland Garros.
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Even as she rose through the ranks of elite women’s tennis, Iga Swiatek downplayed the weight of expectation. For the first time in her 62-week reign as the Hologic WTA Tour’s No.1 player, that position could have been snatched away during Roland Garros. Swiatek lost only eight games in her first three matches, including four 6-0 set pieces. Only Beatriz Haddad Maia managed to win more than four games in six matches, and she did so in a tiebreak. And then, in a stunning final against Karolina Muchova, that deep, penetrating pressure became clear. Swiatek did, however, drop a set, her first in a Grand Slam singles final. Five times, her serve was broken.
But she made it through in the end. She persisted, and she won. Swiatek won 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 after Muchova double-faulted on match point. This was her most difficult final and, in retrospect, one of her most cherished because of how she won. Swiatek willed herself to victory when up against a comparable athlete. “This one, for sure, it was a little bit tougher,” Swiatek told reporters later. “I right now feel like it’s a little bit different. I needed to really handle that. I’m super happy that I managed to do that and that Daria (Abramowicz, her full-time psychologist) helped me, as well, because for sure these past three weeks weren’t easy.”
Swiatek’s third French Open title in four years is difficult to place in any context, given that she turned 22 only ten days ago. To be honest, the players of the past she can now call peers are incredible. She is the third player, after Monica Seles and Naomi Osaka, to have won each of her first four major finals. She is the youngest winner of her fourth major title since Serena Williams more than two decades ago. Swiatek’s hat trick in Paris puts her on par with Seles, Williams, Margaret Court, and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario – and she hasn’t even reached her prime.
“I was a little bit surprised that it actually happened. [Muchova] was always coming back. So I felt like — I don’t know, I don’t know what I felt,” the Pole added. “It’s pretty hard to kind of keep your focus for these almost three weeks. I finished the whole clay court swing so well, and that I kind of survived. I guess I’m never going to kind of doubt my strength again, maybe because of that.”
