Iga Swiatek reinforces top spot in WTA rankings


Poland’s Iga Swiatek poses with the trophy the day after she won the women’s final match against Italy’s Jasmine Paolini, on day fifteen of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros Complex in Paris on June 9, 2024. (Photo by EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP)

French Open champion Iga Swiatek of Poland cemented her place at the top of the women’s game with her victory at Roland Garros, reinforcing her position as world No.1 when the WTA released its new rankings on Monday.

The 23-year-old Swiatek beat Jasmine Paolini in a one-sided final on Saturday to claim a fourth French Open title which now puts her 3,707 points ahead of Coco Gauff, the woman she beat in the semi-finals in Paris.

Apart from a few weeks in autumn 2023 when Aryna Sabalenka took over, Swiatek has been at the top of the rankings since April 2022, a total of 107 weeks.

READ: Swiatek seals place among greats with ‘surreal’ fourth French Open

Gauff’s performance, which improved in her quarter-final in 2023, enabled her to leapfrog the Kazakh Aryna Sabalenka who slips to third.

Paolini’s run to her first Grand Slam final was good enough to lift her eight places to a career-high seventh while 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva, who fell to the Italian in the semis, jumped 15 places from 38 to 23.

Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia, who reached the semi-finals last year, went down six places to No.20 after going out in the first round this time.

WTA rankings

1. Iga Swiatek (POL) 11695 pts

2. Coco Gauff (USA) 7988 (+1)

3. Aryna Sabalenka (BLR) 7788 (-1)

4. Elena Rybakina (KAZ) 5973

5. Jessica Pegula (USA) 4625

6. Marketa Vondrousová (CZE) 4503

7. Jasmine Paolini (ITA) 4068 (+8)

8. Zheng Qinwen (CHN) 4005

9. Maria Sakkari (GRE) 3980 (-2)

10. Ons Jabeur (TUN) 3748 (-1)

Iga Swiatek cruises to third straight French Open title


Poland’s Iga Swiatek celebrates with the trophy after winning against Italy’s Jasmine Paolini at the end of women’s singles final match on Court Philippe-Chatrier on day fourteen of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros Complex in Paris on June 8, 2024. (Photo by Emmanuel Dunand / AFP)

Poland’s Iga Swiatek extended her French Open reign on Saturday as she thrashed Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-1 in the final to win a third successive Roland Garros title.

World number one Swiatek dominated Italian 12th seed Paolini, a first-time Grand Slam finalist, needing just 68 minutes to capture a fourth crown in five years in Paris.

Swiatek has now won all five Grand Slam finals she has contested. Her other victory came at the 2022 US Open.

READ: Iga Swiatek beats Coco Gauff to reach French Open final

She is the fourth woman in the Open era to lift the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen four times — after Justine Henin, Chris Evert and Steffi Graf.

“It’s amazing to be here. I love this place. I wait every year to come back,” said Swiatek, who clicked into gear after saving a match point against Naomi Osaka in the second round.

“I was almost out of the tournament,” she said. “I also needed to believe this one is going to be possible, it’s been a really emotional tournament.”

Swiatek becomes only the third woman to win the tournament three years running. Henin, in 2005-07, was the last to do so. Monica Seles also achieved the feat as a teenager at the start of the 1990s.

At 23, her four Roland Garros titles are the same number Rafael Nadal, the record 14-time men’s champion, had at the same age.

READ: Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff sprint into French Open quarterfinal

For the 28-year-old Paolini it was a sorry conclusion, at least in singles, to an otherwise brilliant fortnight in the French capital.

The world number 15 had won a total of four matches in 16 Grand Slam appearances before advancing to the fourth round of the Australian Open in January.

While she fell short of emulating compatriot Francesca Schiavone, who won the 2010 French Open, Paolini could yet finish on a winning note with her and doubles partner Sara Errani through to Sunday’s final.

“I have to say congratulations to you, Iga,” said Paolini. “I think to play you here is the toughest challenge in this sport.”

“It was tough, but it was lots of fun,” she added.

Paolini’s transformation this season into a player capable of challenging for the biggest prizes stemmed in part from quashing the mindset she needed “a miracle” to beat the best in the sport.

Yet the odds were heavily stacked against her going into the final, with Swiatek unbeaten at Roland Garros since a 2021 quarter-final loss to Maria Sakkari.

Swiatek takes charge

Riding a 20-match winning streak in Paris, and a winner of 18 straight matches this year after titles in Madrid and Rome, Swiatek quickly set about her business.

She powered an ace to hold in the opening game and had Paolini backpedaling down break point, but the Italian ground out a gutsy hold and then broke Swiatek when the Pole flayed a forehand long.

That triggered a searing riposte from Swiatek, who broke to love to get back on serve and then surged 4-2 in front after Paolini coughed up a costly double-fault.

“I got broken at the beginning, so it wasn’t maybe perfect, but I think the level was pretty high,” said Swiatek.

She had her opponent constantly scurrying around the court and the errors began to stack up for Paolini, who conceded the first set with a weak groundstroke into the net.

With Swiatek firmly in the ascendancy, Paolini looked lost for answers as the top seed oozed confidence and repeatedly took control of the rallies.

Had it not been for an astonishing recovery against Osaka in the second round, Swiatek would have suffered her earliest exit at the French Open.

Instead that fright served to ignite her title aspirations, reigning Wimbledon and US Open champions — Marketa Vondrousova and Coco Gauff — in particular powerless to stop the Swiatek offensive.

Swiatek had difficulty putting away Karolina Muchova last year when heavily fancied, but there was no such trouble 12 months on as the Pole dismantled Paolini to underline her burgeoning status as the ‘Queen of Clay’.

The three games won by Paolini were the fewest in the final here since Henin obliterated Ana Ivanovic 6-1, 6-2 in 2007, which also coincided with the Belgian’s fourth Roland Garros title in five years.

Swiatek seals place among greats with ‘surreal’ 4th French Open


Poland’s Iga Swiatek celebrates her victory over Italy’s Jasmine Paolini after their women’s singles final match on Court Philippe-Chatrier on day fourteen of the French Open tennis tournament at the Roland Garros Complex in Paris on June 8, 2024. (Photo by Emmanuel Dunand / AFP)

Iga Swiatek secured her place among tennis greats on Saturday as she joined an exclusive club of four-time women’s French Open champions with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Jasmine Paolini.

The 23-year-old from Poland became only the fourth woman to win four Roland Garros singles titles in the Open era, joining Chris Evert, Steffi Graf and Justine Henin.

She is also the first player to claim three successive women’s titles in Paris since Henin in 2007. Monica Seles was the first to do so, triumphing from 1990-92.

READ: Iga Swiatek cruises to third straight French Open title

“I’m really proud of myself, because the expectations obviously have been pretty high from the outside. Pressure, as well,” said Swiatek.

“I’m a perfectionist, so there is always pressure behind me. But I think I’m fine with handling my own pressure.

“It’s when the pressure from the outside hits me, then it’s a little bit worse. But I managed it really well at this tournament.”

Swiatek’s latest coronation came as no surprise, but her run to the title was not without its hiccups — and tears.

She saved a match point against Naomi Osaka in the second round, later weeping in the gym as her emotions took over.

READ: Iga Swiatek beats Coco Gauff to reach French Open final

“I honestly thought that I’m going to be out of the tournament,” Swiatek recalled after her third-round win.

“Even though I felt something on court, it kind of hit me after. I was happy that I won, but I still felt like I was really on the edge. So, yeah, I just cried.”

From that point, nobody could get close to Swiatek, who conceded a mere 11 games from the fourth round onwards — the joint-fewest en route to winning a women’s major in the Open era.

Rare treble

The world number one also completed a Madrid-Rome-Roland Garros treble. The only other woman in history to do it in the same season is Serena Williams.

“This tournament has been pretty surreal with its beginning and with second round, and then I was able to get my game better and better every match,” said Swiatek.

Ominously for her rivals, the escape act against Osaka has filled the Pole with even greater resolve.

“For sure it gives me the feeling that I should always believe in myself, that I can find my tennis even if I’m in big trouble, you know and with this tennis, fight back,” said Swiatek. “It gives me confidence.”

At 23, she has won the same number of French Open titles as Rafael Nadal, the record 14-time men’s champion, had at the same age.

With the exception of her 2022 US Open victory, Swiatek’s success in Paris far exceeds her results at the other Grand Slams.

But as a former Wimbledon junior champion and a winner of six WTA 1000 hard-court events, it is surely only a matter of time until Swiatek hits upon the right formula to translate her clay form into more major titles on other surfaces.

It was after Nadal’s fourth Roland Garros that the Spaniard went on to lift his maiden Wimbledon trophy.

Swiatek, who said before the tournament it was “too early” to consider herself the ‘Queen of Clay’, again was reluctant to draw comparisons with her idol Nadal.

Swiatek has yet to make it past the quarter-finals of the main draw at Wimbledon, and is not setting any specific goals.

“I don’t expect a lot. The balls are different. Overall tennis is different on grass. I’ll just see and I’ll work hard to play better there,” she said.