Success in two sets for the Pole who repeats after last year’s triumph: beat the world number 2 6-3 6-4
The red earth is back and with it its queen. The WTA 500 champion from Stuttgart is once again Iga Swiatek, winner for the second year in a row against the same opponent she met in the final a season ago, Aryna Sabalenka. The number one of the circuit exhausted the number two in the distance, taking, thanks to a simply perfect performance, a very high level match for 6-3 6-4 in 1h50′. The Pole thus reinforces her extraordinary relationship with the surface (she is the youngest to win six tournaments there since Martina Hingins in 2000), but above all her dominance in the standings: Sabalenka, woman with the most victories (23) and the most finals (4) of the season, remains over 2,000 points behind, with Swiatek who, in the weeks to come, will try to take advantage of the spring clay to slip even further.
an even set
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The ranking, let’s face it, didn’t lie: the clash between the two best tennis players of the moment was truly one of the most fascinating shows that the circuit could offer. Level: very high. Free points: none. Barring dizzying winners, often signed by Sabalenka, the exchanges were long, worked and spectacular. Statistics gave Swiatek winning with 68% probability, but for seven games the two battled evenly, meeting at the peak of their tennis. The turning point is precisely in the eighth game, when Sabalenka would have had the opportunity to knock down Swiatek’s scary defensive wall, but she sank the decisive smash into the net (one of her 18 free errors in the first set, more than double ‘adversary). And that’s not all: with that mistake, her certainties also sunk, she gave way to tension and found herself forced to leave the first break to her opponent (on the fourth attempt). 5-3 Swiatek, the last game is a formality and the set ends in the 51st minute.
solidity
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The clash on the pitch was total. One of the two best strikers, Sabalenka, facing the best counter-striker, Swiatek, the Polish who plays with the Ukraine bow on her cap, opposed to the Belarusian who has been denouncing for weeks the hatred she is receiving, in the locker room, due to her nationality her. But also a great concrete specialist against the current clay master; the woman to beat against whoever wants to establish her dominion. Today the surface has made her. The return to clay gave us back the best Swiatek, at ease with her as never before after a start to the season between ups and downs, athletically unapproachable, which ended up wearing her opponent down thanks to her unnerving perfection. It wasn’t like last year’s 6-2 6-2 final, but the second set went smoother than the previous one. The end of the first partial left its waste to Sabalenka, who started immediately suffering a break that would prove to be decisive, quickly becoming more restless in mimicry and tennis (nerves that also led her to touch her opponent with a smash) . In reality, her game would also have remained quite competitive: the real problem is that Swiatek’s game hasn’t moved from the unattainable standard of solidity of the first set, except for some error in the serve. Speaking of solidity, it’s the third time in his career that Iga manages to confirm a victory from the previous season (after Rome ’21-22 and Doha ’22-23). A great signal for the months to come, in which you will have to defend the points of the Foro Italico and those, very precious, of Roland Garros.
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