Iga Swiatek

Tennis - French Open - Roland Garros, Paris, France - June 4, 2022 Poland's Iga Swiatek in action during the women's singles final match against Cori Gauff ...

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The world No.1 seems unstoppable as she surpasses Serena Williams' career-best unbeaten run.

Just with everything that was going on, I'm also more aware of how it is to win a Grand Slam and what it takes and how every puzzle has to come together and basically every aspect of the game has to work. This time I felt like I really did the work.” “This time it was pure work and pure...

Whether it's the streak, her second Grand Slam title or the top ranking, the only true measure of Iga Swiatek's accomplishments is history itself.

“I think it’s going to be a little bit different. Swiatek’s chief strategy was targeting Gauff’s forehand – of the teenager’s 23 unforced errors, 16 came on that wing. “So when I was playing quarterfinal, I felt like even if something is going to go bad, I still know how to come back. I mean, there was lot of confusion in me, for sure.” So I tried to take just positives from it.” Back in March, Iga Swiatek was working on what in retrospect feels like a quaint little winning streak of 11 matches.

Saturday's game, between Świątek and Coco Gauff, provided a chance to glimpse potential greats at the beginning of their careers.

Gauff secured one last hold before Świątek held to win—and quickly set off to clamber up to her player’s box to hug her dad, her coach, her sports psychologist, and the rest of her team. She can hit it in any direction with deft disguise, and she can hit it with depth, wherever she happens to be on the court. The match left Gauff in tears and Świątek with a thirty-five-match winning streak, tied (with Venus Williams) for the longest on the women’s tour this century, and tied with Sharapova for the youngest in this century to win two majors. But to glimpse potential greats at the beginning of their careers is among the most satisfying things on offer from sports. To watch Świątek just now is to see fresh tennis greatness, and she played the finest tennis of her two weeks in Paris during Saturday’s final: mixing up her serves; returning aggressively; creating, with tactical savvy, yards of open court to strike winners into; finding the lines on the big points, again and again. Gauff broke Świątek’s serve to begin the second set, then held to go up 2–love. Świątek calmly won the next five games. In the sixth game of the first set, with Gauff having held for the first time in the previous game, Świątek closed out a hold of her own with two searing forehands, the first struck crosscourt, the second inside out to Gauff’s backhand corner. But Gauff has real problems with getting her spacing and balance right on the forehand side—she’s often crowding the ball, or stretching for it, when she is hitting on the run, or not stepping into it fully even when she seems to have time to set herself and smack away. Junior finals at the French Open are not held on the big show court, Philippe-Chatrier, and they are scheduled on days when the main-draw finals are being played and the focus of fans is there. They’d reached the women’s final on different trajectories. Junior finals get the attention of players’ parents, of coaches, of sponsors and potential sponsors. Gauff won the French Open girls’ final four years ago by defeating her friend and fellow-American, Caty McNally. McNally had reached the final by outlasting, in a tight, three-set semifinal, a sixteen-year-old Polish girl named Iga Świątek. COVID has done strange things to our sense of time passing; somehow, depending on our mood and the memory we’re seeking to summon, 2018 can seem like long ago or yesterday—we’ll need a Proust to help us navigate our recollections of the pandemic epoch.

Two-time women's Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek says that lessons drawn from her idol Rafael Nadal have helped keep her dizzying success in perspective.

It's normal’. Not everybody can do that and just treat those big moments as another match.” “I feel like all these great champions, they kind of accept that they may lose. “I think the best thing I can learn from him is how he's cool about what's going on around him,” Swiatek said.

Iga Swiatek just claimed her second victory at Roland Garros, and her second Grand Slam title of her career so far - but she's also broken the record Serena ...

But right now I feel like the streak is like more important, I kind of confirmed my good shape.” I have been doing that for a few months now and for sure, two weeks here were harder, also because the media keep reminding me about all this stuff. “So basically that really hit me.

Swiatek, who took over as world number one when Australian Ash Barty announced her shock retirement in March, has now won 35 consecutive matches.

It was pretty tough, the pressure was big,” said Swiatek after sobbing when the Polish anthem was being played. But I mean, Wow! He has been a top athlete in our country for so many years that it still feels like it is hard to believe that he came to watch me. “I am happy that he is here, honestly.

Iga Swiatek was crowned the winner of the French Open yesterday after seeing off American teenager Coco Gauff in the final of the tournament and increased ...

“Well I’m happy that he’s here, honestly. “But I was looking at many different things, at how Iga and her opponent Coco were moving on their feet, making those little steps, at more technical aspects. “When Iga wins, it’s something fantastic, a perfect combination, the emotions are there.

World number one Swiatek has won a record-equalling 35 consecutive matches, a run culminating in her 6-1 6-3 Roland Garros final win over Coco Gauff.

But I want to stay in Warsaw for a few days. “I don’t know about that yet. I haven’t talked to my coach.