Iga Swiatek wins thrilling Elena Rybakina duel at French Open after opening set rout

New York Times

2 days ago

ROLAND GARROS, PARIS — Iga Świątek, a four-time champion at Roland Garros whose progress here tends to be so serene, was pushed to her limits Saturday in a thrilling 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 win over former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina at the French Open.
For the past three years, it has been hard to quantify just how good Świątek's performances have been, because of the obvious gulf in quality between her and her opponent, even when some of them are her rivals at the very top of the sport. Świątek has not lost a match at this tournament in four years, and has rarely been troubled on her way to winning the last three French Opens.
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Not so Saturday. While Rybakina's results over the past year had not been brilliant until a recent surge in form, she can blast anyone off any court when she is playing near her peak. 'The first set, I felt like I was playing against Jannik Sinner,' Świątek said in her on-court interview, after Rybakina had taken her racket out of her hands throughout it.
'I just kept fighting.'
Świątek trailed by a set and a break, and having lost so many matches against red-lining opponent, she could have panicked. Not here on Court Philippe-Chatrier, where she has been unbeatable the past four years. Just as when she stared down a match point against Naomi Osaka last year, Świątek dug in and showed why she is the greatest clay-court player of the modern era. She was even able to shrug off the frustration of thinking she had secured a decisive break for 5-4 in the decisive set, only to be denied by an overrule from umpire Kader Nouni.
Having struggled with her footwork early on, Świątek came up clutch when she needed to, saving seven break points in a row at one stage. Now she's into a quarterfinal against Elina Svitolina, and with little momentum coming into the tournament, she has the wind at her back. A semifinal against world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka looms on the horizon, which would reopen the rivalry everyone in women's tennis wants to see.
Świątek quickly found herself down 5-0, at the start of the match, bringing back worrying memories of recent defeats to Danielle Collins and Coco Gauff and even a win against Madison Keys in which she was taken apart in the opening set. Rybakina even had a couple of points for a 6-0 set, which would have been Świątek's first at Roland Garros since 2019, but Świątek just about clung on.
Świątek had spoken in the week about not chasing down balls during those defeats, and her footwork problems recurred on Court Philippe-Chatrier. It was alarming to see her getting caught in her service motion time and again, struggling to stay balanced as Rybakina swung away.
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Both players left the court at the end of the set, but it was Rybakina who benefited from the stoppage, raising her level even higher and breaking to love by rolling a backhand winner crosscourt and then sending a bruising forehand scudding down the line. Rybakina is one of the game's cleanest ball-strikers; when she plays to her top level she can be borderline unplayable.
The question was whether she could sustain the level, with Świątek needing a dip from her opponent to remain in the tournament. It duly arrived not long after, when Rybakina netted a sitter of a volley to give up a break for 2-2. Świątek then squeaked her way out of a game in which she double-faulted three times when up game point to hold for 3-2. Świątek's dominance at Roland Garros has at times led to her matches being foregone conclusions, so much so that the entertainment value of her quality can get forgotten. Not so Sunday, as Rybakina pushed to her limits — Świątek secured another break by surfing into a forehand pass as only she can, going on a run of 11 straight points to flip a 2-0 deficit into a 5-2 lead, before winning the set 6-3.
After the surges and slumps of the first two sets, both players were playing at a good level at the same time at the start of the decider. Świątek was spearing forehands across the clay, while Rybakina replied in kind on her backhand, one in the fourth game so powerful that it sent Świątek's racket flying out of her hand. To end that game, Świątek missed a volley into the net that was as simple as the one Rybakina missed to get broken in the second set. Furious with herself, she was at risk of losing her serve, but didn't let it affect her.
It was Świątek who earned the first break of serve at 3-3, but Rybakina broke back immediately on another double fault from the Pole to level at 4-4.
In the next game, Świątek, and everyone in the stadium, thought she had broken again in the next game, when a Rybakina second serve was called long down 15-40. The players even started walking to their chairs, but umpire Nouni came down off his to inspect the mark and called it in. Per the rules, Rybakina was given a first serve, and buoyed by the reprieve saved both break points and held for 5-4.
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She couldn't repeat the trick in the 11th game. Świątek again got herself to 15-40 and this time took a 6-5 lead, before converting her second match point with a forehand crosscourt winner to earn a thrilling win, the kind which has eluded her in recent times.
Świątek had won 24 matches in a row at the French Open, tied with Justine Henin for the third-longest women's streak in the Open Era. She went into this fourth-round match, her 41st at the tournament, with a 38-2 record.
A defeat would have seen her be around No. 8 in the WTA Tour rankings going into Wimbledon, which begins June 30. That would have put her in line to face one of the world's top four at the quarterfinal stage, although she has never gone beyond the quarterfinals at what is to date her least successful Grand Slam.
For Rybakina, this is her best performance at a Grand Slam since last year's Wimbledon, when she reached the semifinals and was up a set before losing to eventual champion Barbora Krejčíková. Since then, her longtime coach Stefano Vukov has been suspended for one year by the WTA Tour, after an investigation found that he had breached its code of conduct by engaging in 'abuse of authority and abusive conduct' toward Rybakina.
Rybakina, who has maintained that Vukov has never mistreated her, played some of her best tennis of the past year at this French Open, as she has done for most of the past month. She won her first title in over a year in Strasbourg, France in the run up to Roland Garros. On Court Philippe-Chatrier, she raised her level even higher against the four-time champion. She just proved too much, in the end.