(September 10, 2022) FLUSHING MEADOWS, New York – Iga Swiatek became the first Polish woman player to win the US Open when she beat No. 5 seed Ons Jabeur 6-2, 7-6 (5) in one hour and 51 minutes. This is the 21-year-old Swiatek’s third major title, second for the year. She won Roland Garros this year and last year.
Swiatek is the first woman from Poland in the Open Era to make it beyond the round of 16 at the US Open. Before this
year, the best results were fourth-round runs by Swiatek (in 2021) and Agnieszka Radwanska (in 2007-08, 2012-
13, 2016).
In the first set, Swiatek hit an astounding 90% of her first serves in and won twice as many points as her Tunisian opponent 28-14. She hit 11 winners and was 8 for 9 in net points won. She won the first three games of the set and the last three games of the set, Jabeur broke serve once and held serve once.
In the second set, Swiatek continued to play like she was a backboard, nothing getting past her. She jumped out to a 3-0 lead, same as the first set. The woman from Poland’s shots were so precise that they were essentially cleaning the lines.
Jabeur battled back to hold serve for 1-3, saving three break points. The Tunisian broke back to get back on serve 2-3 only to be broken back. A third straight break put Jabeur back on serve in the second set. She drew even at 4-4. Jabeur missed three chances to break in the ninth game, but Swiatek rallied from 15-40 to hold for 5-4. Jabeur held her nerve and her serve for 5-5. Swiatek held at 30 for 6-5. Jabeur fought off a championship point to get to the second set tiebreak. Jabeur took a 5-4 lead in the tiebreak but Swiatek could not be rattled and won the next three points to capture the US Open crown.
Ons Jabeur during the trophy ceremony: “I want to thank the crowd for cheering me up. I really tried but Iga didn’t make it easy for me. She deserves to win today, I don’t like her very much right now but it’s okay.”
“Amazing 2 weeks backing up my final in Wimbledon. We’re going to get that title some time soon.”
“This was a challenging tournament for me, it’s New York, it’s so loud, it’s so crazy, so many temptations in the city,” said Swiatek during the trophy ceremony. “I’m so proud that I could handle it mentally.”
“Ons – such an amazing tournament and season. We have a nice rivalry, we’ll have many more and I’m pretty sure you’ll win some of them!”
“Just super proud of myself because it wasn’t easy match, even though at the beginning I was dominating, I knew it’s going to be tight and I knew that Ons is going to use any mistake that I’m going to make,” said Swiatek. “I didn’t want to back out.”
“In second set it got really physical action and I’m happy that I got my level of energy up little bit more so I could finish and be really precise in those moments where I needed that. Yeah, we played on a really good level today.”
Asked if her US Open win feels different from her French Open wins, she replied: “Well, it’s hard to compare. For sure Roland Garros I always feel like I have more control and I feel like Philippe Chatrier is kind of my place. Here on Ashe, I still need to figure out the atmosphere. I wasn’t sure before the match if this is actually my place.
“I was pretty focused and I didn’t let myself, like, get into these thoughts. For sure, I don’t know if it’s more than the second win on Roland Garros because I feel like back then the pressure was really on and everybody was kind of expecting me to win.
“Here I managed to go ahead my expectations lower, and also I feel like people were not expecting a lot from me on hard court. So mentally I think Roland Garros was little bit tougher. But tennis-wise and physically here for sure it was tougher.”
“She come off like really strong and put a lot of pressure on me.” Jabeur said. “That didn’t help. I was trying to get in the match. It was very tough. And she was playing really good at certain times. I was trying to get into the rally. Hitting lines a lot of times, kind of annoying from her.
“Second set, again, I had my chances, she had hers. I was just coming back, coming back. At certain times it was kind of tough because I wish I had, like, that lead so I can continue and build on it.
“I know she didn’t play as good as the first set at certain times, maybe I should have taken my shot.
“To be honest with you, I have nothing to regret because I did everything possible. I wish I served little bit better today. It would have helped me a lot.
“You know, you know Iga, how she plays in finals. It’s very enough to beat her. I will keep positive and work on the things that was missing today.”
This is Swiatek’s 10th career tournament win.
Swiatek remains at the top spot in the rankings, while Jabeur moves up to No. 2.
More to follow….
