The World No 1 Iga Swiatek recorded her 57th win of the season beating the Tunisian Ons Jabeur by 2-0 (6:2, 7:6) in 1 hour and 53 minutes in the US Open 2022 final.
The Polish tennis player managed to cope with all the crises and difficult moments in the match, achieving her first “major” triumph on hard courts, as her previous two “Slam” titles were at the French Open / Roland-Garros.
Iga Swiatek is the youngest since 2008 (age 21) to win three Grand Slam titles since Maria Sharapova did it at age 21. She also collected 10,365 points for her WTA ranking on the top and has double that of her main chaser, namely Ons Jabeur.
The Tunisian may regret the first set the most, in which she did not resist and surrendered in only about half an hour. There was more intrigue in the second set, but unforced errors at the end gave th win to the Polish player.
In the first set, Iga Swiatek won her first serve game convincingly, dominating her baseline forehand. Ons Jabeur, on the other hand, was unable to win a point on her serve at all and fell victim to an early break at zero, demonstrating an inability to deal with the forehand of her opponent. The Tunisian made two unforced errors, plus a double fault, which proved to be enough to fall behind 2:0 early on. The astonishing power of Iga Swiatek’s performances proved to be too much for Ons Jabeur and the Polish took an easy advance of 3:0.
Ons Jabeur finally won her serve and reduced it to 3:1, after which she forgot about the defensive undercut backhand and opted for a more offensive and aggressive tactic. She hit four forehand winners in straight sets and in spectacular fashion earned a break for 3:2, adding extra intrigue to the final.
Iga Swiatek again started playing super aggressively and landed two impressive backhand returns from the left side that allowed her to reach a double break point, and Ons Jabeur’s lack of a first serve also helped. In the end, with a forehand-winner on the opposite diagonal, she helped the Pole to lead again with a break – 4:2.
The world’s No 1 took her serve for 5:2, then her opponent made three unforced errors and had to defend a double set point. A relatively routine backhand into the net from the African was enough for Iga Swiatek to take a 6:2 lead and win the first set.
In the second set, Iga Swiatek won her serve game and succeeded to get a break at the Tunisian player’s serve. Thus she took a lead of 3:0 again. However, the break was returned after Ons Jabeur placed another deep return and was able to subsequently make a passing forehand to make the result 3:2.
Iga Swiatek showed an astonishing level in the next game and took every ball extremely early, punishing with a winner every time the African placed a more neutral ball on the court. That’s how it came to another break, and the points in the asset of the Pole varied from a return-winner to a completed long play.
A double fault signaled a rise in emotions for the world’s No 1 and her more conservative serves contributed to Ons Jabeur’s more aggressive returns, which saw her improve to two break points. Unfortunately for her, however, with two unforced errors, she was unable to make them, but a second later she reached a third chance to break and she succeeded to win it for 4:3.
Ons Jabeur reached two break points again, but made two unforced errors, and on the second she was distracted by noise from the crowd. Iga Swiatek helped herself and saved from unpleasant situations with her favorite and effective body serve, but then she made a double fault for deuce, and then sent a backhand into the net – another break point for the African tennis player. However, the Tunisian made an unprovoked mistake again and then sent the ball out with the back of the racket from a leading position in play. An unreturned serve brought Iga Swiatek one game closer to the US Open title.
Ons Jabeur showed quality and determination to continue the match, while Iga Swiatek stuck to returning the ball in the plays and accordingly it came to 5:5. The Pole took her serve and even went to a match point in the next game, but the Tunisian came up with incredible and brave moves to earn a tiebreak. Ons Jabeur opened the “long game” with a backhand winner on the right to a mini-break, but that was only the beginning of this type of winning points – two unprovoked errors from the African saw the status quo change quickly. Iga Swiatek managed to gain an advantage with the kick-off and sent magnificent returns to take a 4:2 lead. Nerves got the better of the Pole again and she made an unprovoked error for 4:4, and then sent another forehand out for 4:5. The world’s No 1 flashed a winning forehand down the straight and then Ons Jabeur found the net to make it 6:5. The African added another unforced error and the match ended – 6:2, 7:6(5) in 1 hour and 53 minutes of play.
Thus, Iga Swiatek won her third Grand Slam title.
