By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
For the third straight time, Iga Swiatek has been named the best clay court player in the sport of lawn tennis after capturing the French Open championship title on June 8, 2024.
Bolstered by a waxing hot campaign after taking down her last three opponents via sweep before entering the finals, the Polish superstar capped off another Grand Slam season with a golden trophy following a demolition exhibition of Jasmine Paolini- 6.2, 6.1- to clinch her fifth Grand Slam title.
Swiatek just proved that she is in a league of her own after decimating Paolini in straight sets, recording one of the fastest championship matches in the history of the French Open.
From the get-go, Swiatek just stomped over Paolini after scoring four consecutive forehand down-the-line winners that boosted her momentum midway through the first set.
Swiatek then officially left Paolini behind when she scored back-to-back break points to secure the early 1-0 lead in the French Open finals.
Despite several adjustments from Paolini that prevented Swiatek’s heavy usage of her forehand power, the Polish ace still found a way to pile up the points using her underrated backhand stroke.
Paolini’s game plan was too obvious throughout the match, and that was to limit Swiatek’s rhythm in firing her forehand stroke.
However, just when Paolini thought she already figured out Swiatek with that strategy, little did she know that the no. 1 ranked female tennis player had a deep bag in her offensive arsenal.
It was a replica of what happened in the first set when the second frame began as Swiatek continued to connect with her baseline bombs.
For Paolini, it was a worse outing than the first as she just failed to pick up any momentum against a proven battle-tested Grand Slam champion like Swiatek.
During her nine-game win to bag the French Open title, Swiatek only managed to drop a single set, and that set loss came from former world no. 1 Naomi Osaka during the second round of the tournament.
Since that three-set win, Swiatek has swept all of her opponents starting in the third round until the grand finals of the Grand Slam event
Dominance at its finest.
