“She plays perfect tennis”
Iga Swiatek becomes the first Polish woman to win the US Open
09/11/2022, 12:18 am
Third Grand Slam final – third win. After two triumphs in Paris, the only 21-year-old Swiatek also wins the title at the US Open. Her opponent had nothing to oppose the dominance of the world rankings, especially in the first set.
Iga Swiatek slumped onto the hard court of the Arthur Ashe Stadium and shed a few tears of joy: the dominator of the tennis scene crowned herself a three-time Grand Slam winner with a superior final victory at the US Open. The 21-year-old Pole won the duel in the second set with the seven-year-old Tunisian Ons Jabeur on Saturday 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) and triumphed for the first time in New York.
The world number one, who had already won the French Open in 2020 and 2022, successfully played her tenth final on the tour in a row and is the first US Open winner in her country since the introduction of professional tennis in 1968. “The tournament was very challenging. New York It’s so loud, so crazy,” said Swiatek: “I didn’t have such high expectations and I’m so proud that I made it mentally too.”
Jabeur, who was badly injured, once again failed to become the first African woman to win the Grand Slam of the Open Era. She was in the Wimbledon final in July and missed out on the title after losing to Kazakh Jelena Rybakina. “I really tried, but Iga didn’t make it easy for me,” said Jabeur, adding with a smile: “I don’t like her very much right now, but that’s okay.”
One answer to everything
She clearly won the last of a total of four encounters (2-2) between the two players in the final in Rome in May. And in New York, too, she set the pace, despite all the good performances by Jabeur in the semifinals against Caroline Garcia from France.
Swiatek, who had knocked out the last German in the tournament in Jule Niemeier in the round of 16, immediately proliferated with her wealth of final experience. She served with high odds, was extremely focused on returns and put Jabeur under pressure that she couldn’t resist at first. After half an hour the first sentence was decided.
“There’s nothing you can do at the moment, she’s playing perfect tennis,” said three-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber on the Eurosport microphone at the beginning of the second set, in which Swiatek continued to set the pace. Jabeur now defended herself more resolutely and more and more defied her opponent. However, Swiatek had an answer for everything.