Swiatek proves she can battle it out till the end even if things don’t go well in the middle Premium

Iga Swiatek has won three French Open (2020, 2022, 2023) crowns and one US Open (2022) title in her fledgling career.

It is tough to stop Iga Swiatek when she wins the opening set. On clay, the challenge becomes bigger. The 22-year-old Pole has a 53-1 win-loss record (excluding retirements) on the surface at WTA events after taking the first set. That defeat came against Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova back in 2019 in Prague when she was a teenager.

Swiatek has now been at the top of the WTA rankings for more than a year and has accumulated two French Open (2020, 2022) and one US Open (2022) titles in her fledgling career. On Sunday, going for her third title at Roland-Garros, she faced who else but Muchova in the final on Court Philippe Chatrier.

As expected, she grabbed the opening set 6-2 and also got the early break of serve to lead 3-0 in the second. However, her unseeded Czech opponent bounced back to win 7-5 to take the final to a decider.

Prague flashback? Could Muchova, who was told by the doctors “not to do sport anymore”, pull it off again?

It certainly looked like happening again. World No. 43 Muchova had stunned Maria Sakkari in the first round and stole a spot in the summit clash from World No. 2 and reigning Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka from match-point down to beat her 7-6(5), 6-7(5), 7-5 in an epic semifinal.

The advantage the Czech has is that her playing style of using a lot of backhand slices, drop shots, rushing to the net and finishing the points with deft volleys is not that common any more. More often than not, it disrupts the rhythm of her opponents.

In a memorable final for the Parisian crowd, Muchova looked set to do it to Swiatek as well as she broke her twice, only to drop her own serve soon in the third set.