Rome, May 19: If Iga Swiatek can keep up her form, it’s hard to imagine anyone preventing her from winning a fourth French Open title.
The top-ranked Swiatek dominated in her latest meeting with No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, winning the Italian Open final 6-2, 6-3 on Saturday to earn her third trophy on Rome’s red clay.
Swiatek didn’t drop a set at the Foro Italico and extended her tour winning streak to 12 matches. In the semifinals, she was almost as dominant in a 6-4, 6-3 win over No. 3 Coco Gauff.
Roland Garros starts next weekend and Swiatek will be aiming for a third straight title in Paris and fourth overall.
“Obviously I am confident. I feel like I’m playing great tennis,” Swiatek said. “But it doesn’t change the fact that I really want to stay humble and really focused on getting everything step by step. Grand Slams are different. There is different pressure on the court and off the court.”
Swiatek became the first woman to complete the “dirt double” of winning Madrid and Rome back to back since Serena Williams in 2013.
The final was quite a contrast from when Swiatek had to save three match points before beating Sabalenka in a third-set tiebreaker in the Madrid Open final two weeks ago.
Swiatek applied so much pressure early on that Sabalenka slammed her racket onto the clay in the fourth game and then had to grab a new stick from her bag.
Even on points when the hard-hitting Sabalenka seemed in control, Swiatek used her superb footspeed and accurate groundstrokes to turn the dynamics around and force Sabalenka into errors.
Sabalenka stepped up her game at the start of the second set but Swiatek saved seven break points in her opening two service games.
Swiatek produced only 11 winners to Sabalenka’s 18 but also had just eight unforced errors to Sabalenka’s whopping 28.
Swiatek crushed a backhand return up the line on her second match point and when Sabalenka’s weak reply landed in the net, Swiatek dropped her white racket to the clay and then began jumping around in celebration after shaking hands with Sabalenka. (AP)
