Iga Swiatek etched her name in Grand Slam history with a wild 6-2, 6-7, 6-4 victory over unseeded Karolina Muchova to win her third French Open and fourth career major title. With the win, Swiatek becomes the first player in the Open era to win the first seven Grand Slam final sets they've played in -- another milestone on the dominant run Swiatek has been on over the past couple of seasons.
Coming into Roland Garros as the defending champion and the No. 1 player in the world, Swiatek was the odds-on favorite to take the title on the red clay in Paris and she looked the part for the entire fortnight leading into the final. She didn't drop a set in this tournament until the second set against Muchova. And while the 22-year-old Polish superstar looked like she was on her way to a quick victory and fourth major championship, the challenger had other plans.
Swiatek got off to a fast start in the first set with an early break to go up 3-0. After a hold by Muchova, the momentum of the first set swung to Swiatek's side of the court when she fought off a break point to hold and go up 4-1 in the first and she didn't look back.
Swiatek got off to another hot start in the second, going up 3-0 again, but Muchova got on track with a break to to get back in the set at 3-2. At 4-4 Swiatek showed some frustration on the court as she faced adversity for one of the first times in the tournament, and the two traded breaks after that before Muchova was able to hold on in the tiebreaker.
Muchova came out on fire in the third set, winning 10 straight points, but after falling down 0-2, Swiatek settled and got a break back to even things up at 2-2. After that both players went through bouts of excellent shot making and unforced errors in a back-and-forth third set that featured he players trading breaks -- a total of five broken service games in the final set -- before a Swiatek hold to go up 5-4. The world's top player was able to get that fifth break of the final set to secure the Suzanne Lenglen Cup for a third time.
While the first half of this season hasn't included a spectacular 37-match win streak like 2022, Swiatek's grip on the top ranking in the world remains tight. Swiatek has now won three titles this season and she leads the No. 2 player Arnya Sabalenka by more than 1400 WTA ranking points.
Grass court tune-ups are next on the WTA schedule at Eastbourne and Berlin in June before Wimbledon begins at the All-England Club in London on July 3.
