Sabalenka ends Swiatek’s Roland-Garros reign, into maiden Paris final
The world No 1 needed three sets but finally ended Swiatek’s unbeaten run in Paris
Aryna Sabalenka (RUS) Vs Iga Swiatek (POL) (Michtof/PSNewz)
Aryna Sabalenka underlined her status as the world No 1 as she beat reigning (and four-time) Roland-Garros champion Iga Swiatek 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-0 to reach the final.
“Honestly, it feels incredible but also the job is not done yet. I’m just thrilled with the performance today, with this win, and with the atmosphere in the stadium,” she said on court to Mats Wilander afterwards.
“She’s the toughest opponent, especially on the clay, especially at Roland-Garros. I’m proud that I was able to get this win.”
She began by breaking the Swiatek serve twice and was one point away from going 5-1 up in the first set. Instead, Swiatek won three games in a row to level the scoreboard, and then held serve to force Sabalenka to stay in it.
But stay in it she did. Neither player looked comfortable on serve during the 69-minute-long first set, but it was Sabalenka who played much the better tiebreak, taking it 6-1.
Swiatek regrouped, coming out firing in the second set, breaking the Sabalenka serve and ultimately holding to love to force a decider. She even wheeled out a drop shot, which has been notably absent from her armoury recently.
It was Sabalenka’s turn to regroup, which she did – improving her first serve percentage dramatically, and getting the early break to take a 3-0 lead.
Perhaps it was the scoreboard pressure that took the match away from Swiatek at this point as her serve crumbled again, allowing Sabalenka to break to love.
The last few games were painful as Swiatek struggled to get points on the board – indeed, winning just six points all set – and the crowd on Court Philippe-Chatrier were hushed, having been supportive of their former champion all match.
Swiatek: Sabalenka took her chances
It ends Swiatek’s 26-match winning streak at Roland-Garros, which included three consecutive titles.
“The pace was from her super fast,” the Pole reflected afterwards. “For sure, especially at the beginning of the match, she played, you know, just kind of as hard as possible and pretty risky. So it was just hard to get into any rally, you know.
“And then, you know, I was able to do that, so the game was kind of, like more things happened because it wasn’t just like serve and one shot or return and one shot, and I could build a rally a little bit.
“Yeah, but in third set I feel like we kind of came back to what happened in first, and she for sure used her chances, and I didn’t really keep up what I was doing in second set.”
This was the first meeting of the two players this year; they had only played each other at a Grand Slam once before, at the 2022 US Open, when Swiatek went on to win the title.
Sabalenka came to Paris off the back of a title win on the clay of Madrid, whereas Swiatek has still not won a tournament thus far this year.
In her first Roland-Garros final, Sabalenka will now face either Lois Boisson or Coco Gauff.
