Swiatek tops French Open anew
PARIS. – Poland’s Iga Swiatek continued her dominance on Parisian clay with a third French Open crown in the last four years, defeating unseeded Czech Karolina Muchova 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in a thrilling final to capture her fourth Grand Slam title on Saturday.
Swiatek has now lost only two out of 26 Grand Slam matches since moving to world No. 1 in April last year and the 22-year-old became the youngest woman to bag consecutive trophies at Roland Garros since Monica Seles, who won from 1990-92.
The US Open champion also joined Seles and Naomi Osaka as the only women in the Open Era to emerge victorious in each of their first four major finals, but she was made to work for it by a determined Muchova.
“First of all, congratulations to Karolina,” said Swiatek, who became the first woman to successfully defend the Roland Garros women’s singles title since Justine Henin in 2007.
“I knew it would be a tough match. I hope you’re going to have many more finals.
Congratulations to your team. I know how much teams are important I wouldn’t be here without my team.
“To my team, sorry for being such a pain in the. . . I’ll try to do better. I know we won this tournament, but it’s not easy. Being on tour for two weeks, it’s tough. Thank you to my family as well; so many came from Poland, and I feel the love.
“It’s not just about the performance, I really love being here it’s my favorite place on the tour.”
Swiatek worked the angles superbly from the baseline and blazed ahead 3-0 on a warm and windy afternoon on Court Philippe Chatrier before world No. 43 Muchova settled the nerves, got on the board, and threatened to break back.
Muchova had chances in the fifth game of the first set, but the 26-year-old struggled to finish them off and found herself in more trouble in the next, before bailing herself out with a tight hold thanks to a delicate drop shot and backhand winner.
Muchova, who prevailed the only time the pair faced off in Prague in 2019, launched herself into Swiatek’s second serve but the Czech sprayed far too many errors and allowed her opponent to go up a set in 44 minutes with another break.
Swiatek continued to benefit from Muchova’s mistakes from the baseline and at the net to build a commanding 3-0 lead in the second set, but the Czech fired a rocket of a forehand to break back and then level at 3-3. — Reuters
