“Iga Swiatek doing Iga Swiatek things, over and over and over and over again,” the WTA wrote on its Twitter timeline after the Polish tennis player won the 2022 Roland Garros title by sets of 6-1 and 6-3 against the American Coco Gauff. The Women’s World Tennis Association (WTA) has gotten used to writing down Swiatek’s exploits tournament after tournament for at least the past six months.
Swiatek’s legacy has already reached the lineage of the great tennis legends: in the 21st century, only she and Serena Williams have been able to win six titles in the first half of a season. The Pole began her streak in February in Doha and continued with victories in Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome and now at Roland Garros; For her part, the American won in Brisbane, Miami, Charleston, Madrid, Rome and also Roland Garros in 2013.
The difference is that Serena Williams achieved that historic year at the age of 32, while Iga Swiatek is doing it at 21 and still has half a season to go, including the start of grass-court tournaments and two Grand Slams ahead: Wimbledon and the USOpen.
Despite her extensive record, the victory at Roland Garros 2022 was only the second in the Grand Slam category for the young woman from Warsaw, since the first was also the Parisian major but from the 2020 edition. At that time she was 19 years old and now 21, in terms of age the difference is not capitalized, but it is in his maturity, admits the tennis player.
“Now I am more aware of how to win a Grand Slam, what it takes, how each piece in the puzzle has to fit and each aspect of the game has to work. With that awareness, I am even happier and prouder of myself, because in 2020 I felt like I was lucky, but this time I felt like I really did all the work.”
In this way, Swiatek became the tenth woman to win multiple Roland Garros singles titles from the Open Era (since 1968), the difference being that, having turned 21 last Tuesday, the Pole is the fourth most youngest to triumph more than once on the clay of Paris, as only Monica Seles, Stefanie Graf and Chris Evert were younger than her when they achieved that feat.
Another stat during the championship was that Swiatek reached 35 consecutive wins and equaled Venus Williams as the two women with the best winning streaks since 2000. On the all-time list, the Pole and American are tied for seventh. place, still far from the 74 victories achieved by Martina Navratilova in 1984, the 66 by Steffi Graff between 1989 and 1990, as well as the 57 by Margaret Court between 1972 and 1973, which are the ones that occupy the podium.
Swiatek’s life has changed radically since that first Grand Slam title at the age of 19 in Paris, but the focus of his career shines brighter at this moment, looking unstoppable, because in his winning streak he has surpassed big names like Ons Jabeur, Aryna Sabalenka, Naomi Osaka, Maria Sakkari, Emma Raducanu, Anett Kontaveit and Simona Halep, among others.
“The one thing I have learned over these last two years is that all you can do and control is work, effort and commitment, so together with my team we have tried that every day and step by step. And here we are living this incredible moment, now it’s time to reflect on that a bit, enjoy and hit the pause button, rest and appreciate every detail. Thank you tennis, sometimes you challenge me, but I appreciate everything you have given me, ”the Pole wrote on her social networks after the Roland Garros 2022 title.
Swiatek beat Coco Gauff in one hour and eight minutes and thanks to the score of 6-1 and 6-3 she extended her streak to 18 winning sets in finals, in addition to the fact that she has not lost more than five games in her last nine battles for a title.
Youth continues to set the pace for her exploits, as she became the youngest multiple Grand Slam winner since Russia’s Maria Sharapova won her second major at the age of 19 at the 2006 US Open.
With this unbeatable pace, Swiatek is showing the world that becoming No. 1 in the world just over 70 days ago was no accident. At the time, she received the title via phone call that “made me cry,” following Ashleigh Barty’s unexpected retirement from professional tennis, but since then, the Pole has been pigeonholed into reasserting herself in the position of honor with her remarkable statistics.
“A lot has changed in my mind and for sure I also realize that I can be number 1 and really handle it properly, so this is great,” says the Roland Garros champion after a successful first half. It remains to be seen what the second part of the season holds for her track record.