World number one Iga Swiatek won a fourth French Open title in five years by beating surprise finalist Jasmine Paolini in Saturday’s women’s final.
The Polish top seed brushed aside underdog Italian Paolini 6-2 6-1 in one hour and eight minutes.
The ‘King of Clay’ Rafael Nadal may have played his last Roland Garros this year, but Swiatek proved once again that she is also Roland Garros royalty.
She is the first woman to win three consecutive titles at Roland Garros since Justine Henin in 2007 and only the third to achieve this feat in the history of the Open, with Monica Seles.
Swiatek is undefeated in Paris since 2021, 21 matches ago, and has won 34 of her 36 matches here, a record matched only by Seles and Chris Evert.
Since surviving a match point in the second round against Naomi Osaka, arguably the match of the tournament, Swiatek’s journey to the final has become more of a procession.
She won 20 games in a row in three matches against Marie Bouzkova (6-4 6-2), Anastasia Potapova (6-0 6-0) and Marketa Vondrousova (6-0 6-2), before rolling over Coco Gauff 6. -2 6-4 in the semi-final.
Such is her dominance that there were even fears that Swiatek would threaten the record for the fastest match by 32 minutes when Steffi Graf pulverized Natasha Zvereva by the same score in the 1988 final.
Facing the daunting task of toppling Swiatek on her favorite hunting ground was Paolini, the diminutive Italian with Polish roots, who is in the midst of her most impressive season and aiming for a maiden Grand Slam trophy.
The tenacious 28-year-old had never made it past the second round of a Grand Slam tournament until this year.
She survived a break point to hold in her first service game, then broke No. 1 in the next.
She was cheered by a healthy Italian contingent, including a noisy corner who formed a tricolor mosaic with their green, white and red T-shirts.
But the bear had been poked and Paolini won only four more points in the next five games as Swiatek stormed to the first set.
She had won 10 in a row before Paolini returned to the picture, but Swiatek won her fifth Grand Slam title moments later and got down on one knee to celebrate.
The Madrid and Rome champion also extended her clay-court winning streak to 20 matches, with fans and analysts suggesting she is on track to become a clay-court great in the same league as Nadal, 14 times Roland-Garros champion.
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