World No.1 Iga Swiatek defended her women’s singles title at the 2023 French Open, capturing a second consecutive Roland Garros title and fourth Grand Slam crown overall, with a hard-fought 6-2, 5 win. -7, 6-4 over a gutsy Karolina Muchova here on Saturday.
Muchova of the Czech Republic rallied from 2-6, 0-3 to make this an incredibly close final, but it was the 22-year-old Swiatek who claimed victory in the end.
With this win, Poland’s Swiatek clinched her third French Open title, adding to the crowns she’s won in 2020 and 2022 and the fourth Grand Slam overall with the US Open which she won in 2022.
Muchova won their only previous meeting, in Prague in 2019. At the time, Muchova (who needed a wild card to enter the tournament) was ranked 109th, while Swiatek, who reached the main draw via qualifying, was ranked 109th. position number 95. .
On Saturday, it was Swiatek who got off to a hot start, breaking Muchova in the Czech’s first service game for a 2-0 lead. The two-time Roland-Garros champion took the first set 6-2 in 45 minutes. The Polish world number one won 74 per cent of her first-serve points during that set.
Muchova then rallied from 0-3 in the second set, breaking Swiatek’s serves. She broke at 5-4 to get into serving position for the second set, but the World No.1 broke back at 5-5 level.
A third game in a row goes against serve as Muchova breaks Swiatek to go ahead 6-5. But she couldn’t be denied a second time.
From 2-6, 0-3 down, Muchova rallied to take the 68-minute second set 7-5 to level the final and force a decider.
The momentum was clearly on Muchova’s side as she broke at love in the first game of the deciding set and was soon serving at 2-1 against Swiatek.
Swiatek, who is an impressive 13-4 overall in the singles finals, returned to serve as she steadied the boat and broke Muchova’s serve to make it 2-2.
But Muchova was not done yet, as she regained the lead again by breaking Swiatek’s serve again and inched her way to 4-3. But Swiatek hit back, on what was the 11th break of the match and Muchova saved two break points but missed on the third. Swiatek again equalized the scores 4-4.
There was no denying the world No.1 this time around, as she won the next two games and claimed the set 6-4, thus winning her third French Open title.
–IANOS
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(Only the headline and image in this report may have been modified by Business Standard staff; all other content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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