Razeen Gutta
World number one Iga Swiatek beat Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur by straight sets in the US Open to become the first women in six years to win two grand slams in a season.
The 21-year-old Polish tennis star got over the line despite a strong second set fightback from Jabeur to seal a 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) win in under two hours at Arthur Ashe Stadium at Flushing Meadows in Queens, New York.
The opening stages were all about Swiatek’s dominance as she went 3-0 up. Jabeur pulled things back to 3-2 before another surge from the world number one settled the set within the first half hour.
The Tunisian came back strongly in the second set, breaking in the fifth and seventh games to force a tiebreaker.
Strong serve breaks from both finalists in the tiebreaker saw it go from 2-2 to 5-5 before Jabeur sent her final attempt long and went on to congratulate Swiatek on her maiden US Open championship win.
Jabeur assured fans post-match that her time would come following her second grand slam heartbreak at the final stage this year.
“I wanna thank the crowd for cheering me up. I really tried. Iga deserved to win today. I don’t like her very much right now but it’s okay. I know I’m going to keep working hard and we’ll get that title some time soon,” she said.
Swiatek congratulated her opponent and touched on this being the beginning of what she believes will be a good, friendly rivalry between the pair.
“It was such a challenging time. Coming back after winning a grand slam is always tricky. For sure this tournament was really challenging because it’s in New York it’s so loud it’s so crazy. There are so many temptations in the city,” she said.
“Ons, such an amazing tournament, such an amazing season. I know this is already a pretty nice rivalry and I’m sure you’re going to win more of them.”
Image source: @USOpenTennis
