The Polish Iga Swiatek conquered this Saturday the first United States Open of her career, by beating the Tunisian Ons Jabeur 6-2 and 7-6(5) in the final in one hour and 53 minutes, and put the icing on the cake a magnificent season, in which he has already won seven trophies.
Swiatek celebrated the second ‘big’ of his season, after Roland Garros in 2021, and the third of his career, as he also won the French Open in 2020.
The Polish player, the first from her country to win the US Open, beat Jabeur with authority and has won ten out of ten in the finals, all without losing a set.
He upset Jabeur again, whom he defeated for the third time in five matches, one of them this year in the final of the WTA 1,000 in Rome.
Jabeur was once again one step away from being crowned with a ‘Grand Slam’ title, after losing the Wimbledon final this year against the Kazakh Elena Rybakina.
His tournament, despite ending bitterly, was historic. She became the first African player to reach the final at a ‘major’ in the Open era and was also the first to reach finals at Wimbledon and New York consecutively since American Serena Williams in 2019.
After coming back from a set and a break down in the third set in the semifinals against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, Swiatek came out to bite in the final and her start was close to perfection.
It took him barely half an hour to win the first set 6-2, leaving behind the service struggles seen in the quarters and semis and hitting 90% of first serves.
To that he added his usual aggressiveness to the rest. The Pole had 35 breaks in this tournament on her way to the final and she had three breaks against a Jabeur who did not grant a break opportunity to France’s Caroline Garcia in the semi-finals.
The second set started in a similar way, with Swiatek scoring an early break to break away 3-0 and seemed to end the story of the match, particularly when the Pole scored three new break balls in the fourth game.
However, Jabeur, who again had the Spanish Arantxa Sánchez Vicario in her box, gave a show of character and courage that allowed her to come back and force the tiebreaker after annulling, with 5-6 on the scoreboard, the first match point of Swiatek.
Arantxa Sánchez, who has been advising him in recent weeks, giving him advice in particular on slice shots and serving, constantly encouraged him from the box.
In the tiebreak, the players started by losing their serve in the first five points of the tiebreak and Swiatek was the first to hold, to take a 4-2 lead.
Even then Jabeur showed his pride and managed to come back to 5-4, before Swiatek managed to sentence the duel with a definitive 7-5.
Swiatek, 21, is increasingly leading the WTA ranking and Jabeur, who started this tournament as third ranked, will be number two starting Monday.
The Polish player took a check for 2.6 million dollars for this victory, in a tournament that distributed more than 60 million dollars in prizes, a record in New York.
Jabeur, meanwhile, received a check for $1.3 million. (D)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
