Iga Swiatek wins third consecutive French Open women’s title by defeating Jasmine Paolini

PARIS– For a few minutes at least, it looked like Iga Swiatek was a little out of control. French Open final against Jasmine Paolini. Swiatek continued to make mistakes and broke early to lose on Saturday at Court Philippe Chatrier.

Could a real surprise be coming? Could Paolini not just win this match, but actually win it? Hum no. Not even close.

The highest rated Swiatek he recalibrated his wayward strokes and simply dominated Paolini, winning 10 straight games en route to a 6-2, 6-1 victory that gave him his third consecutive Roland Garros championship and fourth in five years.

“I love this place, honestly,” Swiatek said. “I wait every year to come back here.”

She extended her French Open winning streak to 21 matches, and her career record at the venue is now 35-2.

The 23-year-old Pole is the first woman to win three consecutive trophies in Paris since Justine Henin, from 2005 to 2007.

“I have to congratulate you, Iga”, said the Paolini 12th placed, a 28-year-old Italian who played in her first Slam final. “I think playing with you here is the hardest challenge in this sport.”

Swiatek also won the French Open in 2020 and the US Open in 2022 and is now 5-0 in major finals.

After a scare in last week’s second round against Naomi Osaka, when Swiatek had to save a match point, this represented her fifth lopsided victory in a row. Swiatek won every set during that period and only conceded a total of 17 games.

“I was almost out of the tournament in the second round, so thank you guys for getting behind my back and cheering me on,” Swiatek told a crowd dotted with red and white Polish flags. “I also needed to believe that this would be possible. It was a very exciting tournament.”

Here’s just another indication of how dominant Swiatek is on clay: she added this triumph to those on the slow surface in Madrid and Rome last month, becoming the first woman to win all three events since Serena Williams did so in 2013. .

During Saturday’s post-match ceremony, Swiatek was flanked by two women who have each won 18 Grand Slam titles, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Evert said before this French Open that he thinks Swiatek could eventually surpass her women’s record of seven majors in Paris.

Paolini he had never made it past the second round of one of tennis’ four major tournaments until he reached the fourth round of the Australian Open in January. Paolini will play the French Open women’s doubles final on Sunday with her partner Sara Errani against 2023 US Open singles champion Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova.

“I think they were the best days of my life,” said Paolini, who will reach a career seventh place in the WTA rankings next week. “It was a very intense 15 days. I am very happy and proud of myself and my team.”

Before the final began, a loud shout of “Come on, Jasmine! Let’s go!” came from two rows of Paolini fans at the bottom of the stands, each wearing a t-shirt in one of the colors of the Italian flag: green, white or red. They would reprise that song, in English, interspersed with clapping.

After Swiatek got the first point of the match, a fan shouted in French: “Jasmine, it’s not over yet!”

Swiatek briefly went through a shaky spell, failing to convert a break point in the second game, and then found himself 2-1 down in the 13th minute when he missed a forehand, sending it wide.

It was Swiatek’s seventh unforced error of the afternoon; Paolini had only made one so far. But the rest of the way, those numbers were six unforced errors from Swiatek and 17 from Paolini.

That’s because Swiatek, who has heard a lot of “Iga!” chants, immediately pulled herself together and began playing the kind of tennis that has kept her No. 1 in the rankings for nearly every week since April 2022. The instincts and footwork to hit almost any shot an opponent can offer. The intimidating, heavy forehands. The pre-game strategy and mid-game adjustments that can change things her way.

And once Swiatek started, there was nothing Paolini could do to slow her down.

Swiatek broke at love for 2-all, ending the game with a game-winning return on an 87 mph (140 km/h) serve. The next game began with a 25-shot exchange that Swiatek ended with a backhand winner that Paolini didn’t even try to chase. Now Swiatek led 3-2.

This was part of a stretch in which Swiatek won 20 of the last 24 points of the first set. Then it was 5-0 in the second.

After just 1 hour and 8 minutes of play, Swiatek was celebrating as he dropped to his knees behind the baseline.

Soon, she was sitting on the sideline and used her phone to take a selfie while holding up four fingers to represent her French Open trophy collection.

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AP Tennis: