PARIS — For a few minutes, it seemed as if Iga Swiatek was a bit off in the French Open final against Jasmine Paolini.
Swiatek kept making mistakes early in Saturday’s title showdown, got broken in the third game and trailed at Court Philippe Chatrier.
Might a true surprise be in the offing? Could Paolini not only make a match of this, but actually win it?
Um, no. Not even close. Not with the way Swiatek can dominate opponents, especially on red clay.
The top-seeded Swiatek quickly recalibrated her wayward strokes and simply overwhelmed Paolini, grabbing 10 games in a row en route to a 6-2, 6-1 victory that gave her a third consecutive championship at Roland Garros and fourth in five years.
The 23-year-old from Poland had to save a match point in a second-round victory against Naomi Osaka in the first week of this French Open, but in the five matches after that three-set escape against the four-time major champion, Swiatek dropped a total of only 17 games.
“This tournament has been pretty surreal with its beginning and with the second round, and then I was able to get my game better and better every match. I’m really proud of myself, because the expectations obviously have been pretty high from the outside. Pressure, as well,” said Swiatek, who is 35-2 overall at the French Open, including a current streak of 21 straight victories. “I’m happy that I just went for it and I was ready to deal with all of this — and I could win.”
She is the first woman with three singles trophies in a row in Paris since Justine Henin from 2005 to 2007.
The 12th-seeded Paolini, a 28-year-old from Italy appearing in the final at a major tournament for the first time, called facing Swiatek at Roland Garros “the toughest challenge in this sport.”
AP photo by Jean-Francois Badias / Jasmine Paolini hits a shot against Iga Swiatek during the French Open women’s singles final on Saturday in Paris. Paolini, in a Grand Slam final for the first time, lost 6-2, 6-1 as Swiatek improved to 5-0 in major title matches.Swiatek improved to 5-0 in major finals, having also won the 2020 French Open and the 2022 U.S. Open. She added this triumph to titles at WTA Tour events on clay in Madrid and Rome last month, becoming the first woman to win all three of those tournaments in the same year since Serena Williams did it in 2013.
“I never played a player that has this intensity before in my life,” Paolini said. “For me, right now, I think it was the most challenging match I played in my entire career.”
In the awards ceremony, Swiatek was flanked by a pair of women who each won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Evert said before this French Open that she thinks Swiatek could eventually surpass her women’s record of seven singles titles in Paris.
Paolini, who will rise to a career-best No. 7 in the rankings Monday, had never been past the second round at a major until getting to the fourth round at the Australian Open in January. She will play in the French Open women’s doubles final on Sunday with partner Sara Errani against 2023 U.S. Open singles champion Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova.
Before the final began, a loud chant of “Let’s go, Jasmine! Let’s go!” arose from Paolini’s supporters in the stands, each wearing a T-shirt in one of the colors of the Italian flag: green, white or red.
After Swiatek got the match’s first point, a fan yelled in French, “Jasmine, it’s not over!”
In fact, Swiatek briefly went through a shaky stretch, failing to convert a break point in the second game, then getting broken to trail 2-1 after 13 minutes when she flubbed a forehand.
It was Swiatek’s seventh unforced error of the afternoon; Paolini had made only one. Those numbers the rest of the way: six unforced errors by Swiatek, 17 by Paolini.
AP photo by Aurelien Morissard / Iga Swiatek hits a shot while playing Jasmine Paolini in their French Open final Saturday at Roland Garros in Paris.Swiatek, who heard plenty of “Iga!” chants, immediately reset herself and began playing the sort of tennis that put her at No. 1 for nearly every week since April 2022. The instincts and footwork to get to almost any shot. The intimidating, heavy-spin forehands. The strategy ahead of the match and the adjustments during the match.
And once Swiatek got going, there was nothing Paolini could do to slow her down.
“I got broken at the beginning, so it wasn’t maybe perfect,” Swiatek said, “but I think the level was pretty high.”
Absolutely.
She broke at love for 2-all, capping the game with a return winner off a serve at 87 mph. The following game began with a 25-stroke exchange, Swiatek ending it with a backhand winner that Paolini did not even try to chase. Swiatek led 3-2, and in a blink, she owned that set and a 5-0 lead in the second.
“You have to push, push, push every ball,” Paolini said, explaining that Swiatek hits shots much sooner and closer to the baseline, while swinging her racket harder, than most other foes. “If not, you have no chance.”
After just 1 hour, 8 minutes of play, Swiatek was celebrating by dropping to her knees behind the baseline.
Soon after that, she was sitting on her sideline bench and using her phone to snap a selfie while holding up four fingers to represent her haul of French Open trophies. No one would be shocked if that number keeps rising.
Eventually, someone else may have to take the celebration photo for her.