Iga Swiatek ‘staying humble’ for French Open after third Rome title
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Poland's Iga Swiatek extended her unbeaten run to 12 matches on clay, to sound out a warning to her rivals ahead of the upcoming French Open.
PHOTO: AFP
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ROME – Iga Swiatek refused to take victory at the French Open for granted despite romping to a third Italian Open title after sweeping aside Aryna Sabalenka 6-2, 6-3 in the final on May 18.
World No. 1 Swiatek will be heavily favoured to retain her Roland Garros crown after comfortably prevailing on the clay against second-ranked Sabalenka.
In front of a packed centre court crowd, Swiatek became the first woman since Serena Williams in 2013 to win on the clay at Madrid and Rome in the same season.
She can join Williams in a European capital city hat-trick if she wins her fourth French Open title, and third in a row, with the clay-court Grand Slam starting in Paris on May 26.
“Obviously, I am confident. I feel like I’m playing great tennis, but that doesn’t change the fact that I just want to stay humble,” said Swiatek.
“Grand Slams are different. There’s a different pressure on the court and off the court. Of course, I love to come to Paris and be there. It’s a great place for me to be and I really enjoy my time there. But these are a hard seven matches that you need to win, so I don’t take anything for granted.”
Swiatek won her 12th successive match on clay by beating Belarusian Sabalenka as she did in the recent Madrid final.
The Pole took her winning record over Sabalenka to 8-3 with another impressive display in what has been an almost flawless tournament by the four-time Grand Slam winner, who did not drop a single set on her way to another championship victory.
The May 18 match was less dramatic than Madrid’s three-set thriller as Sabalenka, who has won the two most recent Australian Opens, gave herself too much to do.
Swiatek took the opening set in just 36 minutes in a clinical display of tennis against Sabalenka, who has said repeatedly that Rome is her dream tournament to win.
Going into the final, Swiatek had won 97 per cent of her matches in which she went one set ahead since the start of 2022 and Sabalenka did not help her cause by wasting seven break points over two games in the second set.
After Swiatek broke Sabalenka’s serve in the seventh game, it was only a matter of time before she closed out the match and championship.
“I would say the first set I didn’t play well at all. I wasn’t, I don’t know, feeling my game well,” said Sabalenka.
“In the second set, I just tried to stay a little bit more aggressive... I just tried to put her a little bit under pressure.
“I had a couple of opportunities to break her serve. Probably if I would take that opportunity, the match would go differently. I didn’t use it, so it is how it is.”
In the men’s final, German third seed Alexander Zverev downed Chile’s Nicolas Jarry 6-4, 7-5 in one hour and 41 minutes on May 19 to win his second Italian Open title and become a Masters 1000 champion for the sixth time. AFP
