With a ruthlessness that echoed Rafa Nadal in his Roland Garros heyday, “Queen of Clay” Iga Swiatek has blasted her way to a fourth French Open singles title, dismantling Jasmine Paolini quite mercilessly on Court Philippe Chatrier.
At just 23, Swiatek’s current domination of women’s tennis was underlined by her 6-2 6-1 victory over the surprise Italian finalist Paolini in the most one-sided of finals on Saturday.
But the self-confessed “perfectionist” was left reflecting on her pride at handling all the expectations that now come with her exceptional Nadal-style record in Paris.
“I’m really proud of myself because the expectations have been pretty high from the outside. Pressure, as well. I’m happy that I just went for it and I was ready to deal with all of this. And I could win,” she told reporters.
“I’m a perfectionist, so there’s always pressure on me. I’m fine handling my own pressure. When outside pressure hits me, it is a little bit worse. But I managed it really well at this tournament.
“It was an emotional win because I felt 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.”
The 12th seed Paolini, in her first grand slam final at the age of 28, came with a bold plan to go toe-to-toe with the defending champion, and began with some success as she grabbed the first break of the match confidently to take a 2-1 lead.
But that was as good as it got for the diminutive Tuscan, whose early bounce was soon deflated once Swiatek immediately then hit her stride and allowed Paolini just four more points in the set.
Making it 21 wins in a row at Roland Garros, Swiatek went on to enjoy a third successive triumph in the Paris slam, a fourth in five years and a fifth grand slam in all. She’s the first woman to win three in a row in Paris since Justine Henin from 2005 to 2007, and only the third in history along with Monica Seles.
Chris Evert, the great seven-time French Open champion who co-presented the Suzanne Lenglen trophy to Swiatek along with fellow great Martina Navratilova, watched the display in awe, predicting: “There’s no doubt in my mind that she’ll match me and then even win more than I did.
“She’s still young. She’s gonna rack ’em up. After those first three games, she’s played unbeatable tennis. It was almost mechanical, robotic – and I mean that as a compliment.”
Swiatek, who had almost been knocked out of the tournament by Naomi Osaka in the second round when she was match-point down, never looked back after that close shave, dominating all her opponents for the rest of the tournament.
“I was almost out of the tournament in the second round, so thank you guys for staying behind my back and cheering me. It’s been a really emotional tournament,” Swiatek told the crowd.
Iga Swiatek (Photo by Tim Goode/Getty Images)
Once Paolini had been broken for 2-0 in the second set, it always seemed as if her only hope was to avoid the embarrassment of a second-set bagel, and at 5-0 down, she soaked up huge applause from the sympathetic crowd by pulling off a forehand winner to grab just her third game.
Becoming the first woman since Serena Williams to complete the Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros clay-court treble in the same season, Swiatek wouldn’t be put off, serving out for her comprehensive victory in just 68 minutes.
It left the Italian reflecting: “She won four titles and she’s still 23. These numbers aren’t normal. They’re unbelievable…”
© AAP
