The Queen of Clay reigns on.
Ten days after the French Open crown was almost ripped from her grasp by Naomi Osaka, Iga Swiatek demolished Jasmine Paolini of Italy in straight sets to claim her third straight title in Paris, and her fourth in five years.
This time she even kept the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen in one piece, carefully ensuring the lid did not fly off the famous old trophy when she celebrated on the podium, as it did last year. Swiatek does not like to let anything slip at Roland Garros.
Paolini, 5ft 4in tall but flying at altitude in a season that has brought a first WTA 1000 title in Dubai and an impending career-high ranking of No 7, made a dream start to her first grand slam final. Matching Swiatek’s aggression off the ground and throwing in variations of pace, height and positioning, the 12th-seeded Italian showed her trademark tenacity to fight off a break point in her opening service game, then claimed the first break of the match as the defending champion lapsed into error.
That was to be as good as it got for Paolini, however, Swiatek responding with a love break to spark a run of 10 consecutive games as she closed out a 6-2, 6-1 victory to claim her fifth grand slam title.
With her 21st straight win on the Parisian clay, the Polish world No 1 becomes only the third woman in the open era to win three successive titles on Court Philippe Chatrier, following in the footsteps of Justine Henin and Monica Seles. This was her 19th win in a row on the red stuff, a run that has also brought titles in Madrid and Rome, and while she has rebuffed comparisons with her idol Rafael Nadal, who has won 14 times at Roland Garros, the fact remains that she is on a near-identical trajectory. Nadal was 24 when he won his fifth French Open; form and fitness permitting, Swiatek, who has just turned 23, will have a chance to equal that landmark – and move another step closer to Chris Evert’s all-time women’s record of seven titles – in 12 months’ time.
Such thoughts might seem premature, but Swiatek’s clay-court dominance is of an order that almost demands conjecture. Already she is rubbing shoulders with the all-time greats. Only Evert, who together with Martina Navratilova presented the trophy, can match Swiatek’s return of four titles from her first six visits to Roland Garros. The Pole is also the first player to win Madrid, Rome and Paris in the same season since Serena Williams in 2013, a point of comparison that even her coach, the unexcitable Tomasz Wiktorowski, tacitly acknowledged afterwards.
“Incredible journey for us,” said Wiktorowski. “Three tournaments in seven weeks, plus Stuttgart. I was like, ‘Crazy plan,’ but we knew somebody did it before us, so we knew that’s possible.”
Swiatek’s sense of what is possible, already strong after her recovery from three championship points down against Aryna Sabalenka in the Madrid final, grew more pronounced still after she climbed off the canvas against Osaka, who came within a missed backhand of ending her French Open title defence in the second round.
“This tournament has been pretty surreal, with its beginning, with the second round,” said Swiatek. “I was able to get my game better and better every match, so I’m really proud of myself, because the expectations obviously have been pretty high from the outside, and pressure as well. So I’m happy that I just went for it and I was ready to deal with all of this and I could win.”
Given that Swiatek dropped just 20 games in six matches either side of her victory over Osaka – only three more than Osaka won against her – the obvious assumption would be that her second-round win was the catalyst for her title run. Wiktorowski, however, was not so sure.
“I’m not sure if it helped, but it gave some perspective,” Wiktorowski told Eurosport’s Àlex Corretja. “It gave some perspective that it’s not going to be easy. She passed through this match, defended a match point, and she made it. It gives some confidence, but also it gives perspective to us that we probably need to do something a little bit more.”
Swiatek and her team delivered handsomely on that need. Like Coco Gauff in the previous round, Paolini was unable to summon the required blend of power and consistency to keep the Pole at bay, falling into error as she attempted to fight fire with fire in the face of Swiatek’s clinical and relentless attacking. As dominant behind her own serve as she was ruthless in dealing with her opponent’s delivery, Swiatek broke down the Italian time and again in the baseline exchanges, drawing her away from the middle of the court before delivering the coup de grâce.
“She was playing an unbelievable level all the match, no mistakes, hitting winners,” said Paolini. “I tried to play my best, but it’s not easy to play at that intensity. I never played a player that has this intensity before in my life.
“I think it was the most challenging match I played in my entire career.”
As Swiatek sank to her knees at the end, fists clenched and roaring with delight, it was hard to escape the feeling that facing her on clay might just be the most challenging match anyone could face in an entire career. Didn’t they used to say the same thing about a certain player from Spain?