Swiatek

PARIS, June 10 (Reuters) - Poland's Iga Swiatek continued her dominance on Parisian clay with a third French Open crown in the last four years, defeating unseeded Czech Karolina Muchova 6-2 5-7 6-4 in a thrilling final to capture her fourth Grand Slam title on Saturday. Swiatek has now lost only two out of 26 Grand Slam matches since moving to world number one in April last year and the 22-year-old became the youngest woman to bag consecutive trophies at Roland Garros since Monica Seles, who triumphed from 1990-92. The U.S. Open champion also joined Seles and Naomi Osaka as the only women in the Open Era to emerge victorious in each of their first four major finals but she was made to work hard despite a fast start. "First of all congratulations to Karolina," Swiatek said. "I knew it would be a tough match. I hope you're going to have many more finals. "Congratulations to your team. I know how much teams are important I wouldn't be here without my team. To my team, sorry for being such a pain in the... I'll try to do better. "I know we won this tournament but it's not easy. Being on tour for two weeks, it's tough. Thank you to my family as well; so many came from Poland and I feel the love. "It's not just about the performance, I really love being here it's my favourite place on the tour." Swiatek worked the angles superbly from the baseline and blazed ahead 3-0 on a warm and windy afternoon on Court Philippe Chatrier before world number 43 Muchova settled the nerves, got ...

Paris [France], June 11 (ANI): The World No.1 Iga Swiatek on Saturday successfully defended her French Open 2023 crown after a hard-fought win over unseeded Karolina Muchova in the women's singles final. Swiatek defeated unseeded Karolina Muchova by winning nine of the first 11 games, but her opponent pulled off an incredible comeback to force the match into a third set. But ultimately, Swiatek would prevail late Saturday night in Paris 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 when Muchova double-failed on match point. And so, Swiatek defended her title at Roland Garros, winning her third in four years and fourth major overall. Muchova ranked No. 46, dropped four consecutive points on her first serve game due to sloppiness, and Swiatek quickly built a 3-0 lead. But Muchova settled down when Swiatek served with the score 3-1. She started making long groundstrokes, which made it possible for her to reach the net and score. Swiatek defeated Muchova's lone break-point opportunity with a powerful, lashing backhand in a match that lasted more than nine minutes and featured four double-digit points. The second set started to replicate the first one with Swiatek leading 3-0 once more. However, this time Muchova created a second break opportunity and capitalised on it by winning with a forehand down the line to return to service at 2-3. Muchova broke Swiatek's serve for the third time in a row as the momentum continued. But three games later, at 2-all, it was back on serve. In the seventh game, the pivotal b...

Swiatek retreated back to Poland with her small team, where they held talks about her direction and progress. Doubt festered in her mind. When she arrived at Roland Garros, the then 18-year-old struggled through practice, unable to escape her negative spiral. Her mood was so low that she made a bet with her sports psychologist, Daria Abramowicz, to see if she could just get through one training session without any drama. Swiatek spent the days before the tournament questioning her future. “I remember just being on the Jean Bouin [Roland Garros practice courts] before the tournament, practising there,” Swiatek said last month. “I literally had the talk with Daria if it makes sense to continue everything because I felt so bad. I felt like, I don’t know, my expectations were just pretty high. I felt really bad on court. Always tense and stressed, even when I was practising.” Two weeks later As joyful as her first grand slam title was, Swiatek also struggled to wrap her mind around her transformation. It had taken place in the early days of the Covid pandemic, with just 1,000 spectators allowed on the grounds each day. The whole scenario felt strange. In the years since she has often described feeling that aspects of her first win were “coincidental”. She felt she needed to win the French Open again in order to confirm the victory. Karolina Muchova took Swiatek to three sets and a break down in the third before she could defend her title. Photograph: Robert Prange/Getty Images...

Maybe Iga Swiatek had learned something new about herself Saturday as she claimed her third French Open title in four years — this one by 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 — and her fourth Grand Slam title all told. As she led 6-2, 3-0 and then trailed 2-6, 7-5, 2-0 against the oft-brilliant Karolina Muchova, Swiatek did something her sport did not ask of her much at Grand Slams as she rocketed to No. 1 and has remained there 62 weeks so far. She won the kinds of points so big they would scare the hell out of most people, such that it’s a wonder anybody can hit anything. After all, her romps through Roland Garros draws in 2020, 2022 and most of 2023 had lacked for detours. She won all 14 sets in 2020, 14 of 15 in 2022 (when she lost a fourth-round tiebreak set to Qinwen Zheng, found it intolerable and finished up 6-0, 6-2) and coming into Saturday all of them in 2023, factoring in an opponent’s retirement at 5-1 in the fourth round. Given her 6-4, 6-4 loss to Maria Sakkari in the 2021 quarterfinals, Swiatek has gone 24-1 here this decade (discounting the retirement match). None of it had sent her to the heights of rubber-set hell as did Saturday — to a game returning serve at a precarious 3-4, to another precarious juncture when things reached 30-all at 4-4, to a more precarious juncture with a break point against her at 4-4, to a closing return game when she slammed precise shots all over the place. The emphatic point she crowned with an emphatic backhand volley at deuce in the 3-4 game epit...