Iga Swiatek had already lifted the Suzanne-Lenglen Cup twice: in 2020, then last year. However, his reunion with the trophy did not go quite as planned. As the Pole hoisted it up and waved it, the top part of it flew off and fell… Like a nod to the final she had just won on Saturday, June 10.
This match against the Czech Karolina Muchova (43rd player in the world), Iga Swiatek seemed to master it at first, before stumbling and losing a set en route. But she eventually emerged victorious: 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, in 2h 46min.
At only 22 years old, the world number 1 wins her third title at Roland-Garros, her fourth in Grand Slam (with the US Open in 2022). “The relationship she has with the tournament and the public here takes on its full meaning, year after year, and you can imagine seeing her lift the trophy many more times”, reacted Amélie Mauresmo, director of the Internationaux de France , after the meeting.
Still, the native of Warsaw, who had flown over her previous six matches without losing a set and spent only 7 hours 41 minutes on the courts before this Saturday, this time felt the ocher of her Parisian garden tremble under her feet.
A disappointing then breathtaking final
Not as imperial as at the start of her fortnight, she was able to count on her usual solidity to pocket the first set quite easily (6-2) against a dangerous but too imprecise Karolina Muchova – fourteen unforced errors in the first set – and, perhaps also, overtaken by the stakes of a first Grand Slam final.
After an hour of play, the scoreboard showed 6-2, 3-0 in favor of Iga Swiatek. The sentence seemed on the verge of falling. The varied game of the Czech, who had cut the legs so much and disrupted the powerful strikes of Aryna Sabalenka in the previous round, was no match for the consistency of the Pole. The stands, already sparsely filled, began to empty. The rare “Allez Iga” or “Allez Karo” were even more discreet.
It was then that Karolina Muchova, who had already come out of nowhere in the semi-finals against the No. 2 seed – trailing 2-5 in the third set, she saved a match point – did another magic trick and a hold. -up unexpected to turn the tide of the match. She also signed the point of the game with a serve and volley sequence, concluded by a backhand volley in extension, back to the net. On the ground, she lost her racket. And it was she, one point later, who pocketed the second set. What until then looked more like a harmless match finally took on the appearance of a final, with the unforced errors and the gloomy atmosphere giving way to good play and suspense.
Trailing twice from a break, and with her back to the wall when she had to save a break point at 4-4, Iga Swiatek spoke about her experience, each time managing to pick up by taking more initiative. Karolina Muchova, who had never passed the third round at Roland-Garros, ended up cracking, before losing, in the next game, on a double fault.
The Polish woman could then squat down, her head in her hands, in tears. “She dropped everything, we see that she had to draw, noted Amélie Mauresmo. It was a great show, it was strong of Karolina to be able to get back into the game. »
“A beginning of parallel” with Rafael Nadal
As soon as the match point passed, the fight had given way to emotion on the Philippe-Chatrier court. Karolina Muchova, first, collapsed when speaking. “When I look at these people [her team], I feel like I’m the winner,” she said in a trembling voice to thank her clan. The player has come a long way: she, who was not spared from injuries, had to leave the wheelchair tournament last year after spraining her ankle in the third round.
Then it was up to Iga Swiatek, still with her cap screwed on her head but her eyes red with tears, to express how special the Porte d’Auteuil is for her. “I say it every year but it’s not the performance itself that counts, I love being here, it’s my favorite place on the circuit. »
If we cannot yet speak of a mistress of the place like Rafael Nadal, fourteen times winner at Roland-Garros and absent this year for the first time since 2005, the young Pole is starting to take her ease on Parisian clay. And Amélie Mauresmo to recognize: “There is still a long way between three and fourteen titles, but there is the beginning of a parallel. »
