Top-ranked Swiatek wins first U.S. Open
NEW YORK >> Good as she's been this year, Iga Swiatek came to the U.S. Open unsure of what to expect.
She complained that women use different, slightly lighter, tennis balls than the men do at Flushing Meadows, where she'd never been past the fourth round. She was trying to grow accustomed to the noise and distractions, the hustle and bustle, of the Big Apple. And she arrived with a record of just 4-4 since her 37-match winning streak ended in July.
None of that matters now. Cementing her status as her sport's new dominant figure by winning what is expected to be the last tournament of Serena Williams' career, the No. 1ranked Swiatek outplayed No. 5 Ons Jabeur 6-2, 7-6 (5) in Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday to claim her first championship at the U.S. Open and third Grand Slam title overall.
“Just not expecting a lot, especially before this tournament. It was such a challenging time, you know?” said Swiatek, who is 55-7 in tour-level matches with seven trophies in 2022, both best in the WTA.
“For sure, this tournament was really challenging, also, because it's New York. It's so loud. It's so crazy,” she said. “I'm really proud that I could handle it mentally.”
Swiatek, like Jabeur, travels with a sports psychologist, and it took some fortitude to finish this one off. At 6-5 in the second set, Swiatek held her first championship point. Right before Jabeur served, Swiatek jogged over to the sideline to change rackets — an unusual choice at that moment.
When action resumed, Swiatek missed a backhand. That could have been tough to recover from. Indeed, Jabeur pushed things to the tiebreaker, which she then led 5-4. But Swiatek steeled herself, took the last three points and soon was accepting the silver trophy and a $2.6 million winner's check, joking: “I'm really glad that is not in cash.”
The 21-year-old from Poland won the French Open in June for the second time and is the first woman since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to collect two major titles in a single season.
“I really tried, but Iga didn't make it easy for me. She deserved to win today,” said Jabeur, a 28-year-old from Tunisia who will rise to No. 2 in the rankings Monday.
Smiling while looking at Swiatek, Jabeur told a crowd that offered her plenty of support: “I don't like her very much right now, but it's OK.”
Jabeur is the first African woman and first Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam final and was participating in her second in a row. But she is 0-2 at that stage, including a runnerup showing at Wimbledon in July.
“I know I'm going to keep working hard, and I know we'll get that title someday soon,” Jabeur said to her fans and her support team, who wore black shirts with white writing that read “Yalla Habibi,” Arabic for “Let's go, my love!”
Men's final
No. 3-seeded Carlos Alcaraz, a 19-year-old from Spain who is well ahead of his time, heads into a oneof-a-kind U.S. Open men's singles final today against No. 5 Casper Ruud, a 23-year-old from Norway.
There is so much at stake for both: This is the first Grand Slam final between two players eyeing both a first major championship and the ATP's No. 1 ranking.
“Of course, there will be nerves,” Ruud said, “and we will both feel it.”
Ruud got a taste of this sort of stage in June, when he made it to the French Open final before losing to Rafael Nadal.
This will mark Alcaraz's debut on the last day of a Slam. He is the youngest man in a final at Flushing Meadows since Pete Sampras won the 1990 U.S. Open at 19, and the youngest in any major title match since Nadal won the 2005 French Open at that age.
Those two guys turned out OK: Sampras retired with 14 Grand Slam trophies; Nadal has a men's-record 22.
Alcaraz would be the youngest — there's that word again — ATP No. 1 since the computerized rankings began in 1973. He has been showing signs of being an elite player as a teen, rising up the rankings, winning titles and compiling victories over Nadal and 21-time major champion Novak Djokovic in consecutive matches (on clay, no less).
“He's one of the best players in the world, for sure. He's so young. He hits the ball so hard. I never played a guy who moves as well as him, honestly. I've seen him get a lot of balls, but I was hitting some drop volleys ... (and) he's getting there. How he's able to extend points? Incredible,” Frances Tiafoe said after losing to Alcaraz in the semifinals. “He's a hell of a player. He's going to be a problem for a very long time.”