PARIS: World number one Iga Swiatek confirmed her dominance of women’s tennis by sweeping aside American teenager Coco Gauff 6-1 6-3 to claim her second French Open title in three years on Saturday.

The 21-year-old Pole’s blend of power, poise and precision on the clay was too much to handle for the 18-year-old Gauff, who never recovered from a shaky start in her maiden Grand Slam final.

Swiatek, who took over as world number one when Australian Ash Barty announced her shock retirement in March, has now won 35 consecutive matches - matching the longest unbeaten streak since Venus Williams in 2000.

She raced through the opening set and snapped Gauff’s brief resistance in the second to become the fourth player this century to lift the Suzanne Lenglen Cup on multiple occasions.

Swiatek celebrated her sixth straight title this year in the players’ box with her friends and family.

“I told Coco ‘Don’t cry’ and that’s what I am doing. Congrats to Coco,” said an emotional Swiatek. “You are doing an amazing job. At your age, I was on my first year on tour and I did not know what I was doing. You will find it, I am sure of that.”

A disconsolate Gauff was left sitting on her seat in tears after a nervous performance, punctuated by 23 unforced errors and three double faults.

The 18-year-old American came up short in her bid to become the youngest Grand Slam singles champion since Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004.

“I want to congratulate Iga, what you’ve done on tour in these past couple of months has been amazing,” said Gauff, as the tears flowed again when she thanked her team. “I hope we can play in more finals and maybe I can win one... I want to thank my team, I’m sorry I couldn’t get this one today.”

Gauff will now turn her attentions to Sunday’s doubles final, where she will face home favourites Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic alongside compatriot Jessica Pegula.

Gauff looked nervous in the opening exchanges and a flurry of unforced errors handed Swiatek a break in the very first game.

The 18th seed found herself 3-0 and a double break down just 16 minutes into the match, as Swiatek’s powerful backhand helped her win a lengthy third game on her fifth break point.

Gauff finally got on the board with a scrappy hold to the delight of the crowd, but she had dropped a set for the first time in the tournament just minutes later.

Swiatek was not playing her best, but a cross-court backhand winner brought up two set points and she took the second opportunity when Gauff fired wide.

The Pole gifted her opponent a potential route back into the match, making four unforced errors to throw away her serve in the first game of the second set.

Swiatek recomposed herself though as the mistakes continued to come from Gauff, breaking back to level at 2-2.

She made it five straight games to move within one of the title, losing only five points in the process.

Gauff dug deep to force Swiatek to serve for the trophy.

But the top seed did just that on her first match point, dropping to the red clay in celebration as Gauff sent a return flying long.

RUUD SETS UP FINAL AGAINST NADAL

On Friday night, men’s eighth seed Casper Ruud rallied from a set down to beat an error-prone Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 to become the first Norwegian man to reach a Grand Slam singles final and set up a title clash against 13-time champion Rafa Nadal.

With his victory against the Croat on Court Philippe Chat­rier, Ruud will at least rise to a career-high world ranking of sixth when the list is updated at the conclusion of the claycourt Grand Slam at Roland Garros.

“It was a great match from my side. I did not start great but from that break [second set] I played some of my best tennis this year,” Ruud said in his on-court interview.

“Marin is usually the one who is playing very fast and playing the balls very hard. I figured I need to step up a bit and counter attack and go for some faster shots. That helped.”

Ruud fired 16 aces and 41 winners past 2014 US Open champion Cilic.

However, there was a worrying security breach in the third set when a female protester ran onto the court and tied herself by the neck to the net.

She wore a shirt which bore the slogan: “We have 1028 days left” before being eventually cut free by security staff. The match resumed after a 15-minute delay.

Published in Dawn, June 5th, 2022