If Iga Swiatek can sustain her kind, it is arduous to think about anybody stopping her from successful a fourth French Open title.
The world No.1 Swiatek dominated in her newest assembly along with her nearest rival Aryna Sabalenka, successful the Italian Open ultimate 6-2 6-3 on Saturday to earn her third trophy on Rome’s pink clay.
The Pole did not drop a set on the Foro Italico and prolonged her successful streak to 12 matches. In the semi-finals, she was nearly as dominant in a 6-4 6-3 win over US Open champ Coco Gauff.
Roland Garros begins subsequent weekend and Swiatek will likely be aiming for a 3rd straight title in Paris and fourth total.
“Obviously I am confident. I feel like I’m playing great tennis,” Swiatek mentioned.
“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.
“These are arduous seven matches that you want to win, so I do not take something without any consideration. I’ll simply work arduous as I did in Madrid and Rome and we’ll see.”
After congratulating Swiatek during the trophy ceremony, Sabalenka told her rival: “I hope we’ll make it to the ultimate in Roland Garros, and I’m going to get you there.”
Then Sabalenka added, “Just kidding. I’m simply going to attempt to do higher than right this moment.”
During her speech, Swiatek replied, “We’ll see about that Roland Garros ultimate.”
Swiatek became the first woman to complete the “dust 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.
“Madrid, I did not really feel like I may do every little thing. Here I form of did,” Swiatek said. “I felt like I can actually use this floor and this sense to play even higher.”
Swiatek applied so much pressure early on that Sabalenka slammed her racquet onto the clay in the fourth game and then had to grab a new one 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.
“Her motion is unbelievable. You all the time know that it’s important to construct the purpose and it’s important to end the purpose,” Sabalenka mentioned.
“That’s why typically I attempt to overhit balls, understanding she’s going to get to it. … She’s actually good in each aspect of the sport.”
Swiatek produced solely 11 winners to Sabalenka’s 18 but additionally had simply eight unforced errors to Sabalenka’s whopping 28.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
