World No. 1 Iga Swiatek defeated Tunisian Ons Jabeur 6-2, 7-6(5) to win her first U.S. Open title and second major tournament victory of 2022 and third overall.
The 21-year-old Pole spent just one hour and 51 minutes to beat the No. 5 seed Jabeur, also the runner-up Wimbledon. Despite being the world No. 1, many did not believe Swiatek would be the last player standing in New York, due to the unpredictability in women’s tennis and the fact that Swiatek was only 2-2 on hard courts leading into the U.S. Open.
Swiatek was off to a 3-0 lead before Jabeur hit five clean winners to help pull back to 3-2. Swiatek kept her dominating style, breaking Jabeur twice more to win the first set. The second set opened much alike the first with Swiatek taking the first three games and Jabeur pulling two back before it was dragged into tiebreak where the Pole won on her first match point on Jabeur’s forehand unforced error.
“It’s part of tennis, winning or losing is part of it,” said Jabeur, who was looking to win her first major title and become the first Muslim player to win a major singles title. “I struggled to win my first WTA title. It took me time. So I believe this will take me time. The most important thing is accepting it, learning from the finals that I lost. I’m not someone that going to give up.”
Swiatek becomes the first Polish player to win the U.S. Championships, achieving what 1937 U.S. women’s runner-up Jadwiga Jedrzejowska was not able to do.
After winning the French Open as an unseeded player in 2020, Swiatek was immediately thrust into the top of women’s tennis upon the retirement of dominant No. 1 Ash Barty in March of this year. She won the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in March which clinched the No. 2 ranking, but was placed at No. 1 after Barty asked to be taken off the WTA rankings after her retirement announcement. She had a 37-match win streak that included her second title at Roland Garros. She struggled a bit since winning in Paris, losing in the third round at Wimbledon at the top seed and then going only 2-2 in U.S. summer hard court events leading into the U.S. Open.
Iga Swiatek is fantastic. She is the world’s nhumber one and definitely deserves it. Ons Jabeur is also great and she had a chance, but something was not enough for her.