Iga Swiatek conquered the women’s singles title at the 2022 French Open on Saturday. The world’s best player needed just 68 minutes to wrap up the final against first-time finalist, Coco Gauff, dropping just four games en route – winning the second Grand Slam title of her career, 6-1, 6-3.
Swiatek dictated the pace of the match and also most of its shot-making. Winners came forth from her racquet, to which her opponent had no answers. The top seed wrapped up the opening set in 35 minutes, winning the first four games in a row before Gauff steadied the proceedings by holding her serve for the first time in the fifth game. A couple of games later that included yet another break of Gauff’s serve, Swiatek took the lead in the match.
French Open: Iga Swiatek’s cup overflows with title glory
In the second set, Swiatek started off slow and Gauff was able to go up in the match after securing a break on Swiatek’s serve for the first time. She did well to consolidate the break and go up 2-0 but thereafter, the match’s course tilted in Swiatek’s favour all over again, this time decisively. The 21-year-old won five games in a row to go up 5-2 in the set. Serving to stay in the match, Gauff did well to hold her nerves and retain her serve for the only third time in the match. A game later, any hopes she might’ve harboured about making a comeback were snuffed as Swiatek capitalised on the first of the two match points she had on her serve.
Only four winners separated Swiatek from Gauff – the former had 18 while the latter finished with 14. But the difference came about in the errors that crept into each of their games. While Gauff had 23 unforced errors and 21 forced errors, Swiatek’s shot-making saw her come up with just 16 unforced and nine forced errors.
Beyond the exaltation of having won a Grand Slam again in the span of two years, Swiatek also notched her 35th consecutive win, levelling with former world no. 1 Venus Williams’ tally that she achieved 22 years ago, in 2000. The win also meant a further tightening of Swiatek’s hold of the top spot of the women’s singles rankings.
Photo Credit: French Open Twitter