Iga Swiatek dropped the racket, covered his face with his hands and crouched down crying for several seconds. In a final thriller over 2:46 hours, the 22-year-old Pole celebrated her third triumph at the French Open and defeated the surprise Czech finalist Karolina Muchova 6:2, 5:7, 6:4.
The world number one lost the first set in the course of the tournament, but showed nerves of steel and her extra class at the end. “I love being here. This is my favorite place on the tour,” enthused Swiatek in her interview on the pitch. “I wouldn’t be here without my team. Thank you guys – sorry for being such a pain in the ass.” Out of sheer joy, she shook the Coupe Suzanne-Lenglen so hard that the lid of the silver trophy fell off.
With the score at 3:0 in the second set, the game almost seemed decided in Swiatek’s favour, but Muchova stayed in the game with an irrepressible will to fight. After the first emotional scenes, Swiatek jumped relieved over the red ashes on the Philippe-Chatrier court.
Many fans from Poland on site
“I really had problems with your varied game. I hope that we will play many more finals against each other,” she said to her opponent and also addressed her fans in the stands. “So many people have come from Poland – I really feel the love.” Poland’s President Andrzej Duda congratulated directly via Twitter: “Great day for Polish tennis in Paris! The great Iga Swiatek has won the Roland Garros tournament for the third time!!!”
Swiatek had already triumphed at the classic clay court in Paris in 2020 and 2022. The world rankings-43. Muchova celebrated the greatest success of her career with her first final in a Grand Slam tournament. “It’s incredible, very emotional,” said Muchova, wiping tears from her eyes before her speech. “It’s been a wonderful three weeks, it’s been so close. I hope this is just the beginning.”
Swiatek had a lot more trouble than in her first two final wins at the Stade Roland Garros: Last year it was 6: 1, 6: 3 against the American Cori Gauff, in 2020 the Pole won 6: 4, 6: 1 against Sofia Kenin from the UNITED STATES. Swiatek once again underlined their current exceptional position: Only Monica Seles and Naomi Osaka had previously won their first four Grand Slam finals in the professional history of tennis for women.
Stronger physique
During the course of the tournament, Swiatek was on the pitch more than four hours less than her opponent – and she also prevailed thanks to her strong physique. Only in the semifinals against the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia was the Pole really challenged. Muchova, on the other hand, had delivered the best women’s game of the tournament in the semifinals in a duel with Aryna Sabalenka. In her victory over the second in the world rankings, she fended off a match point in the third set when the score was 2:5.
And the Czech, who was repeatedly stopped by injuries in her career, initially did not find her way into the game at all. After a nervous start from Muchova, Swiatek was already 3-0 after just ten minutes. But slowly the outsider got used to the big stage. Muchova gained confidence, came back, tried to play her variable game like she did against Sabalenka. The 26-year-old was able to serve twice in the first set, but Swiatek initially fended off all of her opponent’s attacks with stoic composure.
Sandplatzdominatorin
In 54 games on clay, Swiatek had only lost once after winning the first round – against Muchova 2019. But it didn’t look like it at first. Again, the clay court dominator quickly won the first three games. But when everything seemed ready for the big victory party, at which soccer star Robert Lewandowski surprised her last year, Muchova turned things up again. With a lower error rate than before, she equalized to 3:3.
And suddenly Swiatek lost its sovereignty. The game became high quality and dramatic. When the score was 6:5, Muchova got the set ball at the most spectacular point of the game: Thanks to her great athleticism, she converted a volley and lost the racket from her hand. A backhand from Swiatek then sailed out – set equalization.
The game went back and forth. Whenever a player finally seemed on the way to victory, her opponent came back. Despite breakballs, Swiatek made it 5: 4 – and was able to celebrate a little later.
