World No 1 Iga Swiatek claimed a fourth French Open title in 5 years with victory towards shock finalist Jasmine Paolini in Saturday’s ladies’s ultimate.
The highest seed from Poland brushed apart Italian underdog Paolini 6-2 6-1 in an hour and eight minutes.
‘King of Clay’ Rafael Nadal could have performed his final French Open this yr however Swiatek comprehensively proved as soon as once more she can also be Roland Garros royalty.
She is the primary girl to win three consecutive Roland Garros titles since Justine Henin in 2007 and solely the third to attain the feat in Open historical past, together with Monica Seles.
Swiatek is undefeated in Paris since 2021, 21 matches in the past, and has received 34 of her 36 matches right here, a document matched solely by Seles and Chris Evert.
Evert and Martina Navratilova, with 9 Roland Garros titles between them, offered the runners-up plate to Paolini and the winners’ trophy to Swiatek.
“It’s amazing to be here. I love this place. I wait every year to come back here,” mentioned Swiatek.
“I was almost out of the tournament in the second round – it’s been a really emotional tournament.”
Since surviving a match level within the second spherical towards Naomi Osaka, in arguably the match of the match, Swiatek’s path to the ultimate has been extra like a procession.
She received 20 video games in a row over three matches towards Marie Bouzkova (6-4 6-2), Anastasia Potapova (6-0 6-0) and Marketa Vondrousova (6-0 6-2), earlier than rolling over Coco Gauff 6-2 6-4 within the semi-final.
Such is her dominance there have been even fears that Swiatek might threaten the document for the quickest match of 32 minutes when Steffi Graf pulverised Natasha Zvereva by the identical rating within the 1988 ultimate.
Going through the tall process of toppling Swiatek at her favorite looking floor was Paolini, the diminutive Italian with Polish roots, who’s within the midst of her most spectacular season and was eyeing a maiden Grand Slam trophy.
The tenacious 28-year-old had by no means been previous the second spherical at a Grand Slam till this yr.
She survived a break level to carry in her first service recreation after which broke the No 1 within the subsequent.
She was cheered on by a wholesome Italian contingent together with one noisy nook who fashioned a tricolour mosaic with their inexperienced, white and purple t-shirts.
However the bear had been poked and Paolini solely received 4 extra factors within the subsequent 5 video games as Swiatek raced to the opening set.
She had received 10 in a row earlier than Paolini bought on the board once more, however Swiatek wrapped up her fifth Slam title moments later and sunk to her knees in celebration.
The Madrid and Rome champion additionally prolonged her profitable streak on clay to twenty matches, with followers and analysts suggesting she is nicely on the way in which to turning into a clay-court nice in the identical bracket as 14-time French Open champion Nadal.
Paolini a minimum of has one other shot at a Roland Garros title, as she returns on Sunday for the doubles ultimate alongside Italian companion Sara Errani.
“It’s been an intense 15 days but the best days of my life. I’m really proud of myself,” she mentioned.
Wilander: Iga can win 5, six, seven titles
Mats Wilander on Eurosport:
“Four titles, she’s 23. I think she can win another five, six, seven because her style to me is very modern and she plays with a lot of spin so it’s not going to go anywhere so unless the other women learn how to do that she’s going to be winning Roland Garros for many, many, many years.
“However it’s powerful to play like Iga as a result of you have to be so sturdy and have that racket head velocity with all that high spin on the forehand, that is why she’s unbeatable right here to me.”
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