Iga Swiatek slumped onto the hard court of the Arthur Ashe Stadium and shed a few tears of joy: the dominator of the tennis scene crowned herself a three-time Grand Slam winner with a superior final victory at the US Open.
The 21-year-old Pole won the duel in the second set with the seven-year-old Tunisian Ons Jabeur on Saturday 6-2, 7-6 (7-5) and triumphed for the first time in New York.
The world number one, who had already won the French Open in 2020 and 2022, successfully played her tenth final on the tour in a row and is the first US Open winner in her country since the introduction of professional tennis in 1968.
“The tournament was very challenging. New York is so loud, so crazy,” said Swiatek: “I didn’t have such high expectations and I’m so proud that I made it mentally.”
Jabeur once again failed to become the first African woman to win the Grand Slam of the Open Era. She was in the Wimbledon final in July and missed out on the title after losing to Kazakh Jelena Rybakina.
“I really tried, but Iga didn’t make it easy for me,” said Jabeur.
Swiatek has an answer ready for everything
Jabeur, known locally as the ‘Minister of Happiness’, looked forward to the game in sunny New York with great determination.
“I want to leave everything on the pitch and hopefully I can win,” she said just before stepping on the pitch. “I’m ready,” replied Swiatek. And proved this from the start.
She clearly won the last of a total of four encounters (2-2) between the two players in the final in Rome in May.
And in New York, too, she set the pace, despite all the good performances by Jabeur in the semifinals against Caroline Garcia from France.
Swiatek, who had knocked out the last German in the tournament in Jule Niemeier in the round of 16, immediately proliferated with her wealth of final experience. She served with high odds, was extremely focused on returns and put Jabeur under pressure that she couldn’t resist at first. After half an hour the first sentence was decided.
“There’s nothing you can do at the moment, she’s playing perfect tennis,” said three-time Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber on the “Eurosport” microphone at the beginning of the second set, in which Swiatek continued to set the pace.
Jabeur now defended herself more resolutely and more and more defied her opponent. However, Swiatek had an answer for everything.