Swiatek raced to a 6-1, 6-3 victory in 68 minutes to say her second Grand Slam simply days after turning 21. At the 2020 French Open, she was an unseeded 19-year-old who turned a nationwide heroine in a single day as the primary tennis participant from Poland to win a serious.
With her triumph Saturday, Swiatek prolonged her successful streak to 35 matches.
In an on-court trophy-ceremony tinged with tears on each gamers’ components, Gauff congratulated Swiatek on her achievement and voiced hope that they’d meet in future Grand Slam finals. “And maybe I can get a win on you one of these days,” Gauff mentioned with a giggle, wiping her tear-streaked face.
Swiatek, after thanking her household and supporters, significantly those that waved Poland’s flag so proudly all through the two-week match, spoke on to Gauff as her personal tears fell.
“I can see every month you are progressing, all the time,” Swiatek mentioned. “When I was your age, [it] was my first year on tour, and I had no idea what I was doing! You will find it.”
Then she addressed the folks of Ukraine.
“I want at the end to say something to Ukraine: To stay strong, because the war is still there,” said Swiatek, who competes with a yellow and blue ribbon on her cap in solidarity with Ukraine, a neighbor of Poland.
Swiatek needed this French Open title badly, she revealed afterward.
When she won it at 19, before a largely empty stadium at the height of the pandemic, it left her “confused” and feeling a bit “lucky,” she said.
On Saturday, a second French Open title represented validation — validation not only of her talent, but her hard work and sacrifice, along with that of her traveling team, which includes a sports psychiatrist as well as the customary complement of coaches.
“This time,” Swiatek mentioned, “I felt I really did the work.”
For Gauff, reaching her first Grand Slam final — without conceding a set, no less — represented significant achievement as well.
She became the youngest Grand Slam finalist in women’s tennis since Maria Sharapova at Wimbledon in 2004.
Moreover, she acknowledged, it helped ease the pressure she has carried these last years, since she won the 2018 French Open junior title at 14 and reached the fourth round of the main draw at Wimbledon in 2019, toppling Venus Williams in her opening match, at 15.
“Even when I was 15, 16, 17, I felt like so much pressure to make a final,” Gauff said. “Now that I made it, I feel like a relief a little bit.”
Finally, even though Saturday’s final was over quickly, Gauff said she viewed it as an important measuring stick of where she stands.
“I feel like throughout my career and even in juniors, the reason I had success so early is that I was able to see that level and then go back and practice and try to reach that level,” Gauff said. “Now that I have seen the level, this level of No. 1 and 35 matches, I know that what I have to do.”
No player has beaten Swiatek since mid-February, when she was edged in a third-set tiebreaker by Jelena Ostapenko in a hard-court tournament in Dubai.
Over the last two weeks on the red clay of Roland Garros, her preferred surface, she has displayed the full range of what makes her so hard to beat.
From the outset of Saturday’s final, Swiatek flaunted the variety of her strokes, constructing points with a medley of topspin wallops, deft slices and crisp volleys.
Fluid and fluent on clay, patterning her clay-court movement on that of her idol, 13-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal, Swiatek covers the court extremely well. There simply aren’t many spots she can’t reach.
Moreover, she pounces on balls so quickly that she rushes opponents, denying them the extra split-second to set strategy and feel in command.
Gauff scattered the first few games with more unforced errors than is customary — a netted backhand and over-hit forehands.
Within minutes, Swiatek sped to a 4-0 lead, pouncing on every ball with great confidence, while Gauff’s forehand continued to let her down.
Her backhand was the trustier weapon, and Gauff drilled one down the line to claim her first game. It was surely a psychological boost but did little to rattle Swiatek, who closed the first set in 32 minutes.
“She does a good job of taking the pressure moments and really rising to the occasion,” Gauff said of Swiatek afterward. “I do that pretty well, too, but today she was just on another level.”
Gauff regrouped and got off to a strong start to open the second set, capitalizing on a wild Swiatek forehand to break serve in the first game.
If Gauff felt despair or doubt, there was no outward indication. She carried herself with confidence, with a focused and determined look in her eyes.
But Swiatek was too expert, making Gauff pay for the slightest mistake.
During the news conference roughly an hour after the match, Gauff explained that she was still fighting a battle against tears — not over losing, necessarily, but over the full range of emotions swirling inside her, both happy and sad.
“I try really hard not to cry on the court, and I knew whether I won or lost, I was,” she said. “I don’t know how to handle it.”
After coming off court, Gauff said she found herself consoling her tearful little brother, too, telling him, “It’s just a tennis match.’” Her trainer and parents had wept, too, but she felt sure it wasn’t because she lost. It was because they loved her.
“I think for them to see me so upset, I think that’s what hurt them the most,” Gauff said. “Tomorrow, or even tonight, we’re going to play cards again, and we are going to laugh. And we are going to be fine.”
Read highlights from Saturday’s remaining beneath.
Swiatek defeats Gauff 6-1, 6-3 for her second French Open title
Feb. 16. That’s the last time 21-year-old Iga Swiatek lost a tennis match and she now has a second title at Roland Garros to go along with her incredible 35-match win streak. The streak ties Venus Williams’s record and the title puts a second Grand Slam trophy on her shelf.
The world No. 1 served out the match with aplomb in 68 minutes, clinching it on the first of her two match points when Coco Gauff sent a forehand just long.
Gauff, 18, can check off her first Grand Slam final and plays for the women’s doubles title Sunday alongside Jessica Pegula.
Iga Swiatek is only one sport away from the French Open title
A backhand clipper down the line put Iga Swiatek just four points away from her second title at Roland Garros. Even after taking a 2-0 lead, Gauff got a little frustrated midway through the second set with her errors and Swiatek deliberately slowing her down. The 21-year-old redirected Gauff’s momentum with ease.
Iga Swiatek breaks again, leads 3-2 within the second
A handful of unforced errors from Coco Gauff let Iga Swiatek back in the second set and the 21-year-old reclaimed a lead with a masterful fifth game. Gauff didn’t win a single point in the fifth.
Coco Gauff breaks for a 1-0 lead within the second set
That is a huge break of serve for Coco Gauff to start the second set. Mentally, it was important for the 18-year-old to get on the board and make a dent — even a tiny one — given the incredible tennis Swiatek is playing. It was her first break point of the match, and she followed it up with a couple aces in the second game.
Iga Swiatek takes the primary set, 6-1
Hope you didn’t oversleep today! Iga Swiatek played darn close to immaculate in the first set, winning it in just 32 minutes by leaning on her gorgeous forehand and excellent shot placement. That’s going to be a big mental hurdle for Gauff to overcome as much as a physical one.
Coco Gauff will get on the board, trails 4-1
Coco Gauff overcame a double fault in the fifth game to hold serve and finally steal a game from Iga Swiatek.
Keep in mind this isn’t the teenager’s only final of the weekend — Gauff also reached the women’s doubles final with fellow American Jessica Pegula. They’ll play the 2016 Roland Garros champions, the all-French pairing of Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic, on Sunday.
Iga Swiatek takes a 4-0 lead in first set
Iga Swiatek is countering Coco Gauff’s aggressive hitting with deliberate pace. She’s taking her time before serving and being a touch more precise than Gauff, who’s really going for her groundstrokes. Swiatek is such a strong favorite she can afford to play a little more carefully.
The 21-year-old is cruising so far, zipping to a 4-0 lead in just 20 minutes.
Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek meet for the primary time on the French Open
Coco Gauff and Iga Swiatek have never played a singles match against each other at Roland Garros before Saturday, but Swiatek holds a 2-0 edge in their all-time career meetings. She won in straight sets on clay in the semifinals of last year’s Italian Open and straight sets again on hard court in the fourth round of the Miami Open in March.
Swiatek played a confident couple of opening games in the final, breaking Gauff’s serve then holding to take a 2-0 lead in the first set.
Iga Swiatek goes for her second Grand Slam title
No. 1 in the world Iga Swiatek is on a hot streak for the ages entering Saturday’s final against Coco Gauff. The 21-year-old from Poland has won 34 straight matches — she hasn’t lost since February — to tie Serena Williams’ winning streak from 2013. Only Venus Williams has won more matches in a row (35) since 2000.
Swiatek won her first major title, at the French Open in 2020, at age 19. Clay is her favorite surface.
Coco Gauff is the youngest Grand Slam finalist since 2004
Coco Gauff has had herself a busy two weeks. She graduated high school just before the French Open began and hasn’t lost a match since, toppling veteran player after veteran player to become the youngest Grand Slam singles finalist since Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004 at age 17. Gauff celebrated her 18th birthday in March.
French Open males’s remaining: Rafael Nadal vs. Casper Ruud
PARIS — Rafael Nadal advanced to his 14th French Open final Friday under conditions no champion wants, with his opponent, third-ranked Alexander Zverev, suffering what appeared to be a significant injury late in the second set.
Nadal, who was celebrating his 36th birthday, rushed to the opposite side of the net to check on Zverev, 25, who howled in pain the moment his right foot buckled outward at a severe angle while he chased down a ball on the slippery red clay court’s baseline.
The capacity crowd at 15,000-seat Court Philippe-Chatrier fell silent amid Zverev’s anguished wails, and a trainer was quick to rush to his assistance.
Zverev, the 2020 U.S. Open runner-up, was seeking his second career appearance in a Grand Slam final. He sobbed as he was helped up from the court and taken off in a wheelchair for medical evaluation.
Nadal had claimed the 98-minute opening set by fending off four set points in a 10-8 tiebreaker. He then battled back from an early deficit in the second set and was a point from forcing another tiebreaker when Zverev’s footing on the baseline went horribly awry.
After a few minutes’ pause in the action, Zverev returned to the court on crutches. Nadal walked beside him as Zverev reached up to shake the chair umpire’s hand, and his retirement from the match was announced.
The two players embraced. And Zverev acknowledged the cheers of the crowd, which had been unabashedly pro-Nadal throughout, by raising one crutch at a time while Nadal gathered his opponents’ belongings and packed his bag at his courtside chair.
Zverev’s retirement sent Nadal into Sunday’s final, in which he will face eighth-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway, who defeated 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic of Croatia to reach his first Grand Slam final, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-2.
In the highest ranks of tennis, the standard drop shot is again in vogue
PARIS — There are only so many shots in tennis. And like tie widths and hemlines, they come in and out of fashion.
But at the top ranks of the sport, the drop shot is having a moment, thanks in part to its deft deployment by two players who have vaulted into the top 10 in recent months — Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur, who has been hailed as “the drop-shot queen,” and Spain’s 19-year-old Carlos Alcaraz, who is regarded as tennis royalty-in-waiting.
Once dismissed by 20-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer as “a panic shot,” the drop shot can be a shrewd offensive tactic — a way to win a point and, over time, demoralize an opponent caught hopelessly out of position when a spin-slathered ball, flicked in an instant, barely clears the net, plops to the court and dies.
As tennis photographs go, the drop shot is extra a chess transfer than an influence play.
When expertly executed, as Alcaraz has multiple times in his march to the French Open’s fourth round, it is a thing of heartless beauty — a chef’s kiss on the red clay of Roland Garros.
Its resurgence on the professional tour is the results of a couple of tendencies.
Tennis has an anger-management drawback, and it’s getting worse
PARIS — None among the sport’s current crop of bad actors invented bad behavior on a tennis court.
John McEnroe was a master tantrum-thrower throughout his career. For Jimmy Connors and Ilie Nastase, profane tirades and obscene gestures were simply part of the playbook through the 1970s and 1980s, designed to fire up the crowd as well as themselves and rattle their opponents.
But the recent spate of fits is different, with a physical component that some believe calls for a firmer hand.
“It’s more violent; it’s absolutely more violent,” said Mary Carillo, who trained alongside McEnroe as a junior and won the French Open’s 1977 mixed doubles titles as his partner. “These guys have taken it up a notch.”
Two-time Grand Slam champion Tracy Austin called on the ATP to “step up” its response.
Hall of Fame inductee Pam Shriver, a frequent tennis commentator, also feels tournament officials and the ATP need to take a firmer hand — particularly when players verbally abuse the crowd, as Denis Shapovalov did at the recent Italian Open, screaming “Shut the f— up” at fans who booed his prolonged rant at the chair umpire.
“I think there hasn’t been serious enough consequences in some situations,” Shriver said. “Swearing to a crowd is totally unacceptable because that’s who’s providing your livelihood — the fans.”
French Open director Amélie Mauresmo: Women’s matches are much less compelling
PARIS — For 30 weeks in 2006, France’s Amélie Mauresmo was No. 1 in the world, a champion of that year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon.
But in her first year as the French Open’s tournament director, Mauresmo has not proved to be the champion of women’s tennis that many expected.
During a news conference Wednesday morning at Roland Garros, Mauresmo, 42, defended her decision to schedule only one women’s match (compared with nine for men) for night sessions, saying she currently finds women’s tennis less attractive and less appealing than men’s.
“In this era that we are in right now, I don’t feel — and as a woman, former women’s player, I don’t feel bad or unfair saying that right now you have more attraction, more attractivity — Can you say that? Appeal? — for the men’s matches,” Mauresmo said when asked about the gender imbalance in the scheduling of the featured night matches.