NEW DELHI: World no.1
Iga Swiatek
on Saturday defeated Italy's
Jasmine Paolini
in straight sets in the women's singles final to clinch her third consecutive
French Open
title in Paris.
Top-seeded Swiatek beat Paolini 6-2, 6-1 at
Court Philippe Chatrier
in just 68 minutes to grab her fourth
Roland Garros
title.
With the lop-sided win Polish Swiatek also claimed her fifth Grand Slam title.
Swiatek, 23, has now won all five Grand Slam finals she has contested. Her other victory came at the 2022 US Open.
Swiatek carried a 20-match French Open winning streak into the final against the 12th-seeded Paolini.
Paolini was participating in a Major final for the first time at age 28.
The Italian had never been past the second round at one of the four most important tennis tournaments until the Australian Open in January.
Swiatek came out all guns blazing early in the contest but after narrowly missing the chance to break from 0-40 down in the second game, the top-seeded Pole made heavy weather of the next to surrender her serve, before bouncing right back.
The diminutive Paolini, only the third Italian woman after Francesca Schiavone and Sara Errani to reach the Roland Garros final since the sport turned professional in 1968, went toe to toe with Swiatek from there but cracked in the sixth game.
With the momentum shifting, claycourt specialist Swiatek began to dominate the exchanges from the baseline, superbly working the angles and sealing the opening set in 37 minutes after winning 20 out of 24 points since going down a break.
A shell-shocked Paolini smiled and soaked up the support and applause from the crowd on the main showcourt when she won the odd point early in the next set, but her challenge faded in the afternoon sun as Swiatek broke twice to build a 4-0 lead.
Swiatek, who dropped only one set throughout the tournament in a second-round epic with Naomi Osaka, won 10 successive games before Paolini got on the scoreboard, but there was to be no late comeback drama and the knockout blow was not long in coming.
Swiatek closed out the victory when Paolini sent a shot long and rejoiced by dropping to her knees and pumping her fists, letting out a huge roar, before joining her entourage in the stands for another round of celebrations.
(With inputs from Reuters)
English (US) ·