It may well become an acquired taste, but Iga Swiatek has yet to relish New York. As she pointed out inside an Arthur Ashe Stadium buzzing with more than 20,000 people for Saturday’s final, New York fans were “so loud, so crazy”.
“It has so many temptations,” she added. The tiramisu is one, and discovering that the organisers had slipped her favourite dessert into the winner’s trophy should help warm up to the delights of New York. The Pole also relished the Flushing Meadows in the end, crowned the US Open champion after arriving suspicious of the surface and the light balls used.
It was all sweet for Swiatek, in a season where winning titles was a piece of cake. Iga’s Bakery (yup, there is one in Warsaw) is sure to bake a big one after she delivered as the favourite, beating Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur 6-2, 7-6(5) in the final. It was Swiatek’s third Grand Slam title and the year’s second.
The 21-year-old with an affinity for the red dirt had been far from her immaculate self on the hard court. She’d progressively got better at Flushing Meadows—Round of 64 in 2019, Round of 32 in 2020, Round of 16 in 2021—but being the best there still felt a long way off. Even in a season where Swiatek eased into the world No 1 chair vacated by Ash Barty and went on a 37-match win streak and won a second French Open along the way.
Once that streak stopped at Wimbledon and she switched to the hardcourt swing, Swiatek’s familiar frailties resurfaced. She lost in the third round of WTA events in Toronto and Cincinnati. That her chatter in the lead-up to the US Open was more about the dislike for the “horrible” balls used for the women’s tournament than the title prospects spoke of her doubts.
“It’s something I wasn’t expecting. I’m proud, a little surprised… I wasn’t sure if I was at the level yet to win a Grand Slam, especially at the US Open where the surface is so fast,” Swiatek said after the final. “It’s also like a confirmation for me that sky is the limit.” And that she’s the player to beat now in women’s tennis, having rapidly raised the bar since Barty quit in March.
If the start of this US Open was about Serena Williams, the end has been about Swiatek being Serena-esque. Her season’s seventh title makes her the first woman since Serena in 2014 to win seven or more trophies in a year. She is the first woman to do the French Open-US Open double since Serena in 2013.
She is also the first woman since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to win two Grand Slam titles in a year, bringing serenity to a volatile women’s circuit. With Swiatek’s increasing comfort on hard courts—grass remains a puzzle—that calm promises to continue.
While her clay dominance is unmatched, four of Swiatek’s 10 titles this season have come on hard courts. She also reached this year’s Australian Open semi-finals, never having gone past the Round of 16 before.
Swiatek said she made a few technical tweaks at the start of the hard court swing, though it was as much about the mindset of going for the kill more often in a rally, a shift from the slow death on clay. “It’s not going to be like on a slow surface where I can build a rally, then be really calm and just finish,” Swiatek said during the US Open. “It’s going to be more risk and less control. So I accepted that.”
Too good for Jabeur
In the final, it was less risk and more control. That was majorly down to Jabeur being slow in movement and error-prone in shots. The Tunisian managed managed just two points in the first three games.
Her range flickered in the fifth game where she got things back on serve but Swiatek broke right back, a sublime backhand passing winner from behind the baseline indicating the difference in the set. So did the serve stats: Swiatek was making 90% first serves (Jabeur 48%) and winning every point on the second (Jabeur 45%).
A double fault, an attempted drop shot that bounced before the net, flung racquet—Jabeur was neither able to stitch two good points together nor show positive body language with Swiatek getting an early lead in the second set as well. Like in the first set, Jabeur clawed back attacking the second serves but Swiatek immediately pulled ahead again, cranking it up with her baseline power and return prowess.
As Jabeur got another break dishing out a few winners, Swiatek faced the heat for the first time. A rare unforced error here, a double fault there and yet Jabeur wasn’t able to crack her open, only fending off a match point to force a tiebreaker. At 4-2 down in it, Jabeur kicked the ball into the stands. A few misses notwithstanding, Swiatek hit the line with her forehand for 5-5. As a Jabeur forehand sailed long two points later, Swiatek falls back to the ground in elation.
As she collected her trophy, Swiatek was asked about the significance of becoming the first Polish woman to win the US Open. She tagged Jabeur, the first African and Arab woman to reach Grand Slam finals, in her response, saying: “We’re trying to be good people and be good examples.”
And pretty good tennis players too.
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