This time, Iga Swiatek did it the hard way.
Crowned champion twice before at Roland Garros after dominant performances on the final Saturday, Swiatek was forced to dig deep on the Parisian clay for a third, battling Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic for almost three hours before she finally prevailed 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.
At a set and a break to the good, the Polish world No 1 looked home and dry. At 2-0 down in the decider, and with her composure fraying in the face of Muchova’s all-court excellence, she looked down and out. Never before had Swiatek dropped a set in a grand slam final, but she remained hard as nails throughout, her courage and resilience carrying her to a 29th victory in 31 matches at the tournament.
Only when a Muchova double-fault finally confirmed victory did the mask slip. Swiatek dropped to her haunches, covering her face with her hands as her name was chanted by a crowd treated to one of the best finals in many years, and the emotion poured forth. Before long, though, she was up in the stands, tears turning to laughter as she exchanged hugs with her team and her family.
“I’m feeling all these different emotions right now,” Swiatek said later. “It’s pretty surreal, everything. The match was really intense, a lot of ups and downs. Stressful moments and coming back.
“I’m pretty happy that at the end I could be solid in those few last games and finish it.”
Back down at courtside, Muchova sat in her chair, disconsolate. Serving at 4-3 in the decider, the gifted 26-year-old had stood within two games of the biggest win of a career that, were it not for persistent injury problems, might already have delivered so much more.
“The feeling is a little bitter, because I felt it was very close,” said the 43rd-ranked Muchova, who struggled to hold back tears during the trophy ceremony.
“But overall, I mean, to call myself a grand slam finalist, it’s an amazing achievement, and for sure big motivation for me to work in the future and to get a chance again to play for these big titles.”
She surely will. Comebacks have become Muchova’s forte: from a complicated abdominal injury that kept her out of the game for seven months; from the nadir that came when doctors warned she may never again play professional tennis; from the sprained ankle that cruelly stopped her in tracks at this event last year, just as she was finally recapturing her form. There have been comebacks on the court, too: from match point down against Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 2 and Australian Open champion, in an epic semi-final; and, here, from a difficult first set that, while it looked close to the naked eye, was nothing of the sort in scoreboard terms.
When Swiatek established a 6-2, 3-0 lead, Muchova looked on course for the heaviest defeat in a women’s final since Henin defeated Ana Ivanovic for the loss of just two games in 2005. Her game, a luscious combination of power, finesse and supreme athleticism that has drawn comparisons with Roger Federer, had clicked in fits and starts, but intermittent excellence is no match for the relentless consistency of Swiatek. The Pole frequently played the role of Rafael Nadal to her opponent’s Federer, sending fizzing topspin forehands up high to the Czech’s backhand to draw defensive one-handed slices. Such shots were meat and drink to the defending champion.
Muchova finally stopped the rot, holding serve with a crisp backhand volley that kissed the side-line, and when Swiatek went fractionally wide with a two-hander to go break point down, the Czech seized the opportunity to build on that slender second-set lifeline, firing a laser-like forehand down the line for a winner.
Though she was back on serve, the odds remained firmly stacked against Muchova. In 54 matches on clay as a professional, Swiatek had only once gone on to lose after taking the first set. The consolation for the Czech was that it was she herself who inflicted that defeat, winning the only previous meeting between the pair four years ago in Prague. Then, though, Swiatek was a 17-year-old qualifier ranked 95 in the world. Surely she would not allow history to repeat itself?
“I felt pretty confident with my game in the second set, but I also knew that it was only one break,” said Swiatek. “So I needed to stay constantly aware and ready for everything, especially playing against Karolina, knowing that she’s come back from really crazy situations in this tournament, and she managed to win those matches.
“I just wanted to be ready. But I felt like I let her a little bit into the match, which I shouldn’t do. Obviously, she’s a great player, so she used that chance.”
Use it Muchova did, albeit at the second time of asking. Having broken for 5-4 as Swiatek, showing the first signs of strain, capped an error-strewn game with a double fault, Muchova made four mistakes of her own, thwarting her hopes of serving out the set. But with Swiatek still struggling, another break followed, and this time Muchova made the most of it. Having missed two set points, the Czech fashioned a third with an incredible lunging volley that almost left her face down in the clay, and Swiatek then sent a return long to leave the match level with an hour and 55 minutes gone.
Those two rallies began a remarkable sequence of 11 straight points against Swiatek, who started the decider in frazzled fashion. Another double fault cost her a love break, and when Muchova then held with back-to-back aces, the defending champion was staring down the barrel.
“I took the chances in the second set and I felt like the momentum went a bit on my side,” said Muchova. “I started well in the third set as well.
“But to play against her, you have to be ready. The balls are coming fast. She’s not doing any easy mistakes, and you always know that [if] you have a chance, you have to take it, because maybe there is no other chance.”
In fact, Swiatek twice battled back from a break down in the decider, each time raising the tempo with huge hitting from the baseline. It was testimony not only to her composure but also to her bravery and enduring commitment to the attacking style that her coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, encouraged her to adopt from the moment the pair began working together in late 2021.
“In the third set, I didn’t want to have any regrets about the second,” said Swiatek. “I just looked forward, and I said to myself, ‘OK, you know what? I’m just going to give it all.’ No thinking, no analysing. Just play my game, use my intuition.”
How it paid off. At the age of 22, Swiatek is the first woman to lift the Suzanne Lenglen Cup in consecutive years since Justine Henin won her fourth and final title in the 16th arrondissement in 2007. She is also the youngest player to defend the title since Monica Seles, and only the third woman in the open era to win each of her first four grand slam finals, following in the footsteps of Seles and Naomi Osaka.
When the lid fell from the trophy as Swiatek cavorted on the winners’ podium afterwards, it felt as though the pressure and expectation of the past few months went with it.
“I’m happy that I finished the whole clay-court swing so well, and that I kind of survived,” said Swiatek. “I guess I’m never going to doubt my strength again maybe, because of that.”
Nor should she. The queen of clay’s reign continues, and it will take something truly special to unseat her.