Entering Saturday’s women’s singles final in Flushing, Iga Swiatek had won her last nine finals and swept through her last nine meetings against Top 10 players. With those awe-inspiring numbers in her wake, how could she not be the overwhelming favorite to win a third major singles title against fifth-seeded Ons Jabeur?
And yet, there was an air of the underdog apparent as the 21-year-old Polish phenom sauntered into Arthur Ashe Stadium to take part in her first US Open final. The Pole’s play through six matches in Queens had been buoyed by determination; it was gritty and gradually improving—but far from lights-out.
“I'm trying not to get my expectations too high because I know anything can happen,” Swiatek warned, earlier in the tournament, as a narrative took hold: perhaps New York was too big a challenge for the clay-loving Warsaw native.
Well-documented struggles on the North American hard courts had cast a shadow of doubt over the world No.1 this summer, and she entered New York almost as an afterthought.
It wasn’t until she ripped through the first set of the final against Jabeur, with 23,859 fans in Ashe looking on in awe, that Swiatek started to resemble the juggernaut that had reeled off a 37-match winning streak and rocked up to claim her second Roland Garros in Paris this spring.
From afterthought to afterburners, Swiatek was rocketing to another Grand Slam title after several weeks of stop-and-go traffic.
Six-time US Open champion Chris Evert, who commentated the final for ESPN, marveled at how Swiatek had gone from doubting Pole to pole position in New York.
“She pulled through some tough matches, just fought through, and she peaked today,” Evert said. “She played her best match of the tournament today. She’s No. 1 in the world and she played like a No. 1 player.”
There were moments of struggle on Saturday, but they only reinforced our belief in Swiatek’s mental capacities. She squandered a break lead twice in the second set, and trailed 5-4 in the second-set breaker, but the belief was too high, the focus too clear.
“I feel like I can adjust to anything,” Swiatek told reporters after earning her third Grand Slam title, her gleaming trophy resting on the podium in front of her. “Right now I feel that.”
Swiatek’s title was won in Ashe on Saturday, but the bedrock had been laid in the days leading up to her crowning achievement.
After struggles in Toronto and Cincinnati, Swiatek had to build her confidence and form brick by brick until the foundation was set. She was down a set and level at two-all with Germany’s Jule Niemeier in the fourth round, before she stormed to the finish, winning ten of the final 12 games to advance to the quarterfinals.
Two rounds later, in the semifinals, she was under attack from Aryna Sabalenka, the No. 6 seed, after rallying from a set down.
Swiatek had her back firmly against the wall, trailing 4-2 in the third, but quickly swung into high gear, claiming 16 of the final 22 points to leave Sabalenka in the rearview.
“She was playing really, really good in the key moments,” said a dejected Sabalenka. “She was just going for it. She was hitting every ball and putting me under pressure.”
Iga being Iga, in other words.
Those key victories played a pivotal role in Swiatek’s performance in the final. A fortnight’s worth of focusing on tiny details in her game left the world No.1 feeling comfortable in her tennis, and in her skin. Finally, she could let go and allow her instincts to take over.
“At the beginning of this swing I had to really force myself to make some technical adjustments,” Swiatek said. “Sometimes I wasn't able to do it every time, so I was making a lot of mistakes.”
Virtually unplayable this spring on the clay, Swiatek’s hard-court summer was more an exercise in acceptance. She had to come to the realization that things would not be so easy, that she would have to trust herself in the tough moments and keep growing her game as she went.
“It's not going to be like on a slow surface where I can build a rally, then be really calm and just finish,” Swiatek said of the difference between playing on clay and hard courts. “It's going to be more risk and less control, for sure. So I accepted that.”
Her coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, stressed the importance of the mental work that took place during the first week-and-a-half in Flushing Meadows in a post-match interview with ESPN’s Rennae Stubbs.
“I saw in her eyes that she was really focused this week, and she really wanted to come back with her form, and she did it,” he said. “She was there with her mind, she was there with her thoughts, she was there with her tennis—I’m really proud. She was really composed at the end.”
For Swiatek, this US Open title was won outside the lines. It was won on the practice courts and in moments of self-reflection. The Pole suffered through difficult moments, accepted that less than perfect would have to be good enough, and let her natural athleticism and instincts take over when she needed them most.
Finally, on Saturday, she was free to fly.
“I didn't need to think about this technical stuff at the end because I did it for already four weeks, so it kind of got a little bit more natural and I used more intuition,” she said. “That was the thing that actually let me be more free.”
