World no. 1 Iga Swiatek returns to French Open grand finals

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

World no. 1 female tennis player Iga Swiatek continued her dominant run in the ongoing French Open after sweeping Beatriz Haddad Maia- 6.2, 7.6- to claim a seat in the grand finals last June 9, 2023, held in France.

The Polish superstar was in the zone against the world no. 14 challenger and outdueled her in the baseline rally to score another 2-0 victory in the Grand Slam tournament.

Despite the better first service percentage displayed by Maia in the match, Swiatek made it up for her consistent groundstrokes and pulled away midway through the first set to establish her momentum.

Swiatek was all over the place sending out monster forehand down-the-line shots and was the more aggressive player in their long rally exchanges.

Although Maia was able to regain her rhythm at the start of the second set, Swiatek responded quickly with a series of jaw-dropping winners to cruise through the match.

Maia had a better chance in the last four games in the second set when she was able to score more points but Swiatek’s crucial break points iced the match.

Swiatek clinched a 100%-win rate in the breakpoint department, scoring 4/4 in the semifinal round to cover her four double-fault errors.

Aside from another Grand Slam grand final feat, Swiatek also finished all of her matches without a single set defeat.

Her closest match was against Maia in the Final Four and demolished all of her opponents including world no. 6 Coco Gauff in the quarterfinals last June 7, 2023.

With the win, Swiatek will be left with one final test and that would be up against Karolina Muchova for all the marbles.