The queen of Paris is dethroned, guillotined by the Tiger from the East. Iga Swiatek had won three straight French Open titles and four overall – but never before had she faced Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian hammered home her status as world No1, winning a pulsating semi-final 7-6, 4-6, 6-0.
The two finest players of the decade had not met at a Grand Slam since the 2022 US Open, and after three years of cold warfare, of straining at the leash, they flew at each other with tooth and claw.
When the dust settled, Sabalenka, 27, moved into her first Roland Garros final. Whichever of Coco Gauff and French wildcard Lois Boisson wins the other semi-final, Sabalenka will be favourite to complete the third leg of a career Grand Slam, after her US Open title and two in Australia.
The context to this match was Swiatek’s terrible form coming in. The 24-year-old had not won a single title since her fourth here last year, and had suffered a succession of shocking defeats – mostly to the kind of power baseliners of which Sabalenka is the gold standard.
It has been akin to when a Test cricket batsman is ‘worked out’ by the bowling fraternity. Not everyone can execute it – still very few in fact – but it is now clear how you beat Swiatek: you rush her, especially on the forehand win where she takes such a big backswing; you play relentlessly flat and hard, attack her first and second serves, especially by drilling the ball straight at her on the forehand side.
Sabalenka did exactly that, steaming into a double-break 4-1 lead.
Arnya Sabalenka booked her spot in the French Open final with a win over rival Iga Swiatek
The world No1 hammered home her dominance on Court Philippe-Chatrier in two thrilling sets
Swiatek was looking to win an astounding fourth consecutive French Open title this weekend
Everything about Swiatek’s game was frenetic, rushed. She was not giving the match, or herself, any time to breath and settle.
In a comparison of these two players’ strengths, the greatest advantage to Swiatek would lie in her movement. Sabalenka moves well enough but she is more of a wham bam woman; Swiatek’s footwork is freakishly fast; she seems to take twice the number of steps of anyone else.
Sabalenka is a tiger, as the tattoo on her left forearm denotes; Swiatek is more of a gazelle, whose traditional approach when facing a big cat is to run rings round it, not trot up and say, Fancy a scrap?
In the final analysis, of rallies between one and four shots, Sabalenka won 34 more than her opponent; in rallies of five or more strokes, Swiatek was +10 – but she did not do enough to elongate the rallies.
Still, at 4-1, with a double break, some tension seemed to creep into the Sabalenka game. Leading 40-30, she hit an ace that would have made it 5-1, but the umpire called back the play for a net cord, leaving Sabalenka bemused. Whether that affected her concentration or not, it was a different match thereafter.
Switek was starting to pick the Sabalenka serve better and adjust to the pace of her shots.
Her first hold of the match brought her back to 3-4, then Sabalenka played a shocker of a service game, including two double faults, to level the scores.
At 5-5, having been a net-cord from 5-1, the Sabalenka of a few years ago would have crumbled emotionally; the imperious new version played a brilliant return game, including her best shot of the match, a curling forehand pass on the run. Swiatek responded with a break of her own but Sabalenka snatched the tiebreak 7-1.
Sabalenka forged ahead, notching up a 4-1 lead in the opening set off some strong hitting
But Swiatek held her nerve and battled back forcefully, pushing the first set to a tiebreak
Sabalenka took a tumble in the clay as she raced to return a well-struck ball by the Polish star
Switek’s coach Wim Fissette offered much needed guidance in her earlier clash against Elena Rybakina but could not work his magic on Thursday
Sabalenka will now look to win her fourth Grand Slam title after victories in the hard court slams
The standard of returning had been breathtaking. A recent innovation in tennis has been data company Infosys and their shot-quality metrics. The gist is every shot is scored out of 10; at the end of the first set, Sabalenka and Swiatek’s return quality was measured at 9.8 and 9.4 respectively, compared to the field’s average of 6.5.
The return quality dipped in the second set – how could it not? – and holds became more easy to come by.
Swiatek played with more poise, too, mixing up her game far better, getting her opponent on the run. Her first serve percentage almost jumped from 54 to 76; Sabalenka’s dropping from 55 to 48.
After two hours of brutal brilliance, we looked set for an epic deciding set. Instead it was a rout, as Sabalenka sorted out her first serve percentage and landed massive forehands time and again. She ended, appropriately, with two clean return winners.
