San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
SWIATEK DOMINATES FINAL
Teenager cruises to French Open win for first Grand Slam title
The Polish national anthem reverberated through a mostly empty Philippe Chatrier Court to the delight of Iga Swiatek, who had barely broken a sweat in her 6-4, 6-1 defeat of No. 4 seed and reigning Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in their French Open singles final Saturday.
The mask covered Swiatek’s face like the lowhanging autumn sun had covered most of the court during the 1-hour, 24-minute match. But it could not contain her smile, which creased her eyes as the song played on.
“I wasn’t expecting to win this trophy. It’s obviously amazing for me,” Swiatek said.
The Grand Slam singles title was the unseeded Swiatek’s first on tour and, of more sweeping significance, the first earned by any player from Poland, though she was swift to
Roland Garros, Paris On the air: Men’s final, 6 a.m., Ch. 7/39
point out that she was merely extending a path that had been paved by others.
She mentioned by name Agnieszka Radwanska, whose 20 tour singles titles included the 2015 WTA yearend championship, and said: “I know there’s going to be a lot of people who are going to compare us. But I think I have to be really consistent for the next couple years for everybody to name me the best player in Poland because still I have a lot to do.”
Give her time. Swiatek, 19, is the youngest French Open women’s champion since an 18-year-old Monica Seles won her third consecutive singles title in 1992. She is also the latest in a kaleidoscope of fresh-faced Grand Slam champions in women’s singles. Of the past 14, nine have been first-time winners.
Swiatek’s coronation had far less of the pomp and circumstance of other years because of the coronavirus pandemic. The crowd was capped at 1,000 paying spectators, to stem the spread of the virus and enable the event to proceed. Swiatek conceded that the tournament cocoon was a nurturing environment for her butterfly-like transformation.
She entered the tournament with a No. 54 world ranking, a recently acquired high-school diploma and a vague plan to test her game on the WTA Tour for what she described as a “gap year” before deciding whether she wanted to continue her education at a university.
University, it appears, will have to wait.
Swiatek did not drop a set at Roland Garros, befuddling the likes of the women’s world No. 1 and former champion Simona Halep, whom she dispatched in the round of 16 with her powerful forehand and angled groundstrokes. She lost only 28 games the entire tournament, and no more than five games in any match, facing stiff competition even though several top players did not enter the tournament, including No. 1-ranked Ashleigh Barty and U.S. Open winner Naomi Osaka.
In the final, Swiatek took Kenin’s intensity and raised her a level, pounding 25 winners against 17 unforced errors. She wasn’t completely impervious to nerves, squandering one set point while serving at 5-3 in the first with a netted backhand on her way to having her serve broken. But she broke Kenin back to close out the first set.
Kenin, a 21-year-old American, had played the second week of the tournament with her left leg taped because of an upper thigh injury that grew more nettlesome as rounds piled on. With Swiatek leading by 2-1 and on serve in the second set, Kenin requested a medical timeout and left the court.
She returned with her leg heavily wrapped but had no answer for Swiatek’s “spinny forehands,” as Kenin described them, or her angled shots.
Swiatek, smelling blood on the red clay, closed out the second set in 31 minutes.