After hoisting her 4th French Open trophy on Saturday, Iga Swiatek is being hailed the ‘Queen of clay’ and at the ladies singles champion photo shoot, she looked every inch the regal part as she joins all-time greats with her on-court accomplishments.
“It means a lot,” she said. “This tournament has been pretty surreal with the second round, and then I was able to get my game better and better every match. I’m really proud of myself, because the expectations, obviously, have been pretty high from the outside. Pressure, as well. I’m happy that I just went for it and I was ready to deal with all of this.”
She only turned 23 last week, and won her first title, the 2020 French Open, less than 4 years ago. On Saturday she demolished Italy’s Jasmine Paolini, 6-2 6-1, in 68 minutes, and now owns 22 career titles. Only 4 active players have more – Venus Williams (49), Petra Kvitova (31), Caroline Wozniacki (30) and Simona Halep (24). In fact, only 2 other players in the Top 20 have won more than 10, namely Aryna Sabalenka, with 14, and who is 3 years older than Swiatek, and Elina Svitolina with 17, and she is 6 years older than the Pole.
Swiatek also is the first player since Serena Williams to win 3 consecutive titles at a single Grand Slam, and she lost the fewest games in the second week at a major since Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, while she joins Monica Seles as the only player in the Open Era to win her first 5 Grand Slam finals.
