French Open: Iga Swiatek wins first tennis Grand Slam title at age 19 to top world rankings

Minutes after suddenly becoming a Grand Slam champion at age 19, while ranking 54th, Iga Swiatek held a microphone during the French Open trophy presentation and hesitated for virtually the only time in the past two weeks.

“First of all, I’m not very good at speeches,” Swiatek began hesitantly, “so I’m sorry because I won my last tournament like two years ago, and I really don’t know who to thank.”

When you have a racket in your hand, it is a completely different story. With the poise of a veteran and the shots of a champion, Swiatek closed out a dominant run at Roland Garros, clinching the final six games to beat Sofia Kenin 6-4, 6-1 in Saturday’s final.

“Two years ago, I won a junior Grand Slam and right now I’m here. It feels like such a short time, ”Swiatek said, her voice cracking. “I am overwhelmed”.

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Swiatek (pronounced shvee-ON’-tek) is the first Polish tennis player to win a major individual trophy and said: “I know it’s crazy to go home”, where a newspaper cover was dotted with the headline “Poland Garros” ahead of the final.

When he hit a last heavy spin forehand winner to claim his first tour-level title of any kind, Swiatek covered his mouth with his right hand and ducked, shaking his head.

Hard to believe? Perhaps. After all, this was only his seventh major tournament; she had never made it past the fourth round.

“It’s like a life-changing experience,” Swiatek said. “Yes, I feel like I made history.”

The way he played these two weeks, with those big groundstrokes, the occasional drop, an excellent comeback and impressive coverage of the court, made this result less surprising.

Kenin said Swiatek’s “spinning forehand on the line” bounces high enough to make things difficult for opponents.

Swiatek lost 28 matches in seven matches and is the first woman to triumph in Paris without giving up a set since Justine Henin in 2007. She is the first teenager to win the women’s title there since Iva Majoli in 1997.

“She’s, like, really hot right now,” said Kenin, who was hampered by an injury to his upper left leg, a problem that first surfaced during a practice session last weekend.

Swiatek defeated 2018 champion Simona Halep and 2019 runner-up Marketa Vondrousova 6-1, 6-2.

So it made sense for Swiatek to manage fourth-seeded Kenin, even if the 21-year-old from Florida won the Australian Open in February and entered this year’s Grand Slam on Saturday 16-1.

He still had to face composite Swiatek, who recently completed high school and listened to Guns N ‘Roses “Welcome to the Jungle” through her black headphones before walking onto the court.

Swiatek travels with a sports psychologist and meditates during the changes, breathing slowly with his eyes closed.

That helped her deal with the stage and the stakes.

“Everyone is stressed when they play Grand Slam finals. I just knew that Sofia can be stressed too, that she is not a machine. I was aware that we can both, like, fight, and we’re probably not going to play our best tennis, because it’s tough with so much pressure, ”Swiatek said. “But I did everything I did in the previous rounds. I concentrated on technique and tactics. I tried to get rid of expectations, you know, just play ball after ball. “

This weekend is the culmination of two unusual weeks, to say the least. The tournament was postponed from May-June to September-October due to the coronavirus pandemic; The recently rising number of COVID-19 cases in France led the government to limit the number of spectators allowed on the grounds to 1,000 per day.

Some of the top women, including 2019 Top Champions Ash Barty, Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu, did not participate in the event; Serena Williams, a 23-time Slam winner, retired before the second round with injury.

The temperature was in the mid-50s (low teens Celsius), with a slight breeze, and the hundreds of fans scattered at Philippe Chatrier court were mostly moderate, aside from one group shouting Swiatek’s name, lengthening it to sound like “Eeeeeeeeeee -gah”.

He took 12 of the first 15 points, thanks to four winners and zero unforced errors.

“I guess it was the nerves or something,” said Kenin, who occasionally dropped or kicked his red, white and blue racket. “But I found my rhythm.”

Soon enough, it was 3-all.

But Swiatek is just tough. She served for the set at 5-3 and broke, but responded immediately by stealing another of Kenin’s service games.

The same thing happened at the start of the second set: Kenin broke for a 1-0 lead, and Swiatek broke back.

At the 2-1 change, Kenin left the court for a medical break, then returned with his left thigh wrapped. While Kenin was gone, Swiatek kept warm by donning a white jacket and doing some services.

When play resumed, it took Swiatek 12 minutes to close it out, finishing with a 25-10 lead in winners.

All that was left was to listen to the Polish anthem, never before played after a grand singles finale, and kiss its glittering trophy.

After addressing the crowd for a moment, Swiatek asked, “Should I say anything else?”

The master of ceremonies replied that he could if he wanted to.

“I have no idea,” Swiatek said. “Sorry.”

Better practice, Iga. The tennis world looks forward to seeing you at more such ceremonies in the future.