Iga Swiatek won a third consecutive French Open and became, at age 23, the youngest woman to win four total French Open titles.
Swiatek, the world No. 1 from Poland, swept 12th seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy 6-2, 6-1 in Saturday’s final.
Paolini, a 5-foot-4, 28-year-old Italian, broke Swiatek’s second service game. Swiatek won the next 10 games.
“I think to play you here, it’s the toughest challenge in this sport,” said Paolini, who plays in Sunday’s doubles final and called this two-week tournament “the best days of my life, I think.”
Swiatek became the first woman to three-peat at Roland Garros since Belgian Justine Henin from 2005-07.
She is the fourth and youngest woman to win four French Open titles in the professional era (since 1968). The others were Chris Evert (seven titles), Steffi Graf (six) and Henin (four).
“I love this place, honestly,” Swiatek, now 35-2 at Roland Garros, told the crowd at Court Philippe Chatrier. “I wait every year to come back here.”
Adding in her 2022 U.S. Open crown, Swiatek also became the first woman to win a fifth total Grand Slam singles title since Maria Sharapova won her last at the 2014 French Open.
Swiatek is the second active woman with five Slams after seven-time major champion Venus Williams.
“I already achieved much more than I ever expected and I ever set my goals to,” she said.
In 2020, Swiatek didn’t drop a set in seven matches en route to her first French Open title while ranked 54th.
The last three years, she lost one set in each tournament. This year, she saved a match point en route to the title for the first time, overcoming four-time major champion Naomi Osaka in the second round.
“I was almost out of the tournament the second round, so thank you guys for kind of staying behind my back and cheering for me,” Swiatek told the crowd. “I also needed to believe that this one is going to be possible. It’s been a really emotional tournament.”
Paolini never made it past the second round of a major before 2024. She was ranked 71st last spring. After the French Open, she will be ranked seventh.
“I just lost the final, but I think I have to be happy of those two weeks and my new ranking,” she said. “It’s a happy moment for me. It’s not a sad moment.”
The French Open finishes Sunday with the men’s singles final between Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev.
NBC, NBCSports.com, the NBC Sports app and Peacock air live coverage at 9 a.m. ET.
