Iga Swiatek successfully defended her championship title at the French Open 2024 after defeating Jasmine Paolini in the final match. The Polish tennis player secured her fifth grand slam title in her career.
Playing on the Philippe Chatrier court at Roland Garros on Saturday, Iga won in straight sets with a convincing score of 6-2, 6-1 in 69 minutes.
Paolini only managed to put up a fight at the beginning of the first set. She broke Iga’s serve to lead 2-1, but the defending champion responded to level the score at 2-2. Iga then went on to win four consecutive games to secure the first set at 6-2.
In the second set, Iga managed to break Paolini’s serve twice and took a commanding lead of 5-0. Paolini extended the match to 5-1 after winning points on her third service opportunity.
However, Iga quickly put an end to the Italian tennis player’s resistance in the following service game.
Paolini’s shot that went out of bounds at 40-30 for Iga in the seventh game ensured the 23-year-old tennis player’s victory.
Iga successfully captured her fourth trophy in five years at Roland Garros, and her third consecutive one since 2022.
Monica Seles (1990-1992) and Justine Henin (2005-2007) stand out as the only players to have achieved similar feats since the Open era began in 1968.
Furthermore, Monica added another grand slam title to her name by winning the US Open in 2022.
Iga is now only three trophies away from Chris Evert, who currently holds the record for the most championship titles at the French Open.
The American tennis legend also presented the championship trophy to Iga, the youngest player to win four titles at the clay court tournament.
“Jasmine, I am very impressed with your playing style, I think you can do a lot, especially on clay courts.” Iga said.
“I want to thank everyone involved in making this tournament a success, as Jasmine mentioned. I love this place, I wait every year to come back here.”
“I was almost knocked out of this tournament in the second round (against Naomi Osaka), so thank you for supporting me, it’s a very emotional tournament,” Iga added.