New York, Sep 11: Good as she’s been this year, Iga Swiatek came to the US Open unsure of what to expect.
She complained that women use different, slightly lighter, tennis balls than the men do at Flushing Meadows, where she’d never been past the fourth round. She was trying to grow accustomed to the noise and distractions, the hustle and bustle, of the Big Apple. And she arrived with a record of just 4-4 since her 37-match winning streak ended in July.
None of that matters now. Cementing her status as her sport’s new dominant figure by winning what is expected to be the last tournament of Serena Williams’ career, the No. 1-ranked Swiatek outplayed No. 5 Ons Jabeur 6-2, 7-6 (5) in Arthur Ashe Stadium to claim her first championship at the US Open and third Grand Slam title overall.
“Just not expecting a lot, especially before this tournament. It was such a challenging time, you know?” said Swiatek, who is 55-7 in tour-level matches with seven trophies in 2022, both best in the WTA.
“For sure, this tournament was really challenging, also, because it’s New York. It’s so loud. It’s so crazy,” she said. “I’m really proud that I could handle it mentally.”
Swiatek, like Jabeur, travels with a sports psychologist, and it took some fortitude to finish this one off.
At 6-5 in the second set, Swiatek held her first championship point. Right before Jabeur served, Swiatek jogged over to the sideline to change rackets – an unusual choice at that moment.
When action resumed, Swiatek missed a backhand. That could have been tough to recover from. Indeed, Jabeur pushed things to the tiebreaker, which she then led 5-4. But Swiatek steeled herself, took the last three points and soon was accepting the silver trophy and a $2.6 million winner’s check, joking: “I’m really glad that is not in cash.”
The 21-year-old from Poland won the French Open in June for the second time and is the first woman since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to collect two major titles in a single season.
“I really tried, but Iga didn’t make it easy for me. She deserved to win today,” said Jabeur, a 28-year-old from Tunisia who will rise to No. 2 in the rankings on Monday.
Smiling while looking at Swiatek, Jabeur told a crowd that offered her plenty of support: “I don’t like her very much right now, but it’s OK.”
Jabeur is the first African woman and first Arab woman to reach a Grand Slam final and was participating in her second in a row. But she is 0-2 at that stage, including a runner-up showing at Wimbledon in July.
“I know I’m going to keep working hard, and I know we’ll get that title someday soon,” Jabeur said to her fans and her support team, who wore black shirts with white writing that read “Yalla Habibi,” Arabic for “Let’s go, my love!” (AP)
