French Open: Aryna Sabalenka ends Iga Swiatek's winning run to reach final with composed, power-packed performance

Indian Express

2 days ago

As Aryna Sabalenka came out to serve in the deciding set of her French Open semifinal on Thursday, her head may have been clouded by doubt.
She had been in control for much of the opening part of this match, only to see her opponent find a way back and have the momentum go her way. Iga Swiatek, a four-time champion in Paris, had performed plenty of miracles and comebacks in her 26-match winning streak at Roland Garros.
However, the most telling aspect of Sabalenka's rise up the rankings, as she established herself as the No.1 player in the world and a multiple Major champion, has been her composure under pressure. No longer susceptible to the mental lapses of her youth, she now knows how to raise her game and go through the gears to win on the biggest stages.
Sabalenka went the extra mile! 💥
Aryna took down reigning champ Iga Swiatek to punch her ticket to the Roland-Garros final. Watch the highlights, presented by @Emirates! ✈️#RolandGarros #FlyBetter #Emirates pic.twitter.com/ut7Papkuh2
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2025
That's exactly what she would do. In an enthralling, two-hour-19-minute battle under the roof at Court Philippe Chatrier, the Belarusian would dethrone the best claycourter of the modern era, and decisively so, inflicting on Swiatek her first defeat in four years at Roland Garros. With the 7-6 (1), 4-6, 6-0 win, Sabalenka entered her first French Open title clash and her fifth Major final overall.
'She's the toughest opponent, especially on clay, especially at Roland Garros. It was a tough match, a tricky match, but I managed,' the 27-year-old winner said after the contest.
Sablenka's pure hitting, power from the baseline, and serving class were enough to outplay Swiatek, but in reality, it was her composure in the final set that allowed her to pick up what is arguably the most significant victory of her Grand Slam career so far, given the opposition. It acted as the perfect build-up for Saturday's final.
Following the 75-minute first set, the broadcasters would display a telling statistic. They have been rating return quality out of 10. In the first set, they rated Sabalenka's as 9.8 and Swiatek's as 9.4. The average in the women's draw so far had been 6.5.
As the match started, Swiatek's serve was simply appalling; for her to not get blown away by her opponent's power and accuracy, she had to step up on her returns and put equal pressure on Sabalenka's serve, which she did.
The moment you qualify for your first Roland-Garros final 😁#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/1kWnAsAfDp
— Roland-Garros (@rolandgarros) June 5, 2025
In the opener, Swiatek lost 21 of 35 points on serve, her winning rate on her second serve standing at a dismal 31 percent. Call it a combination of clever, first-strike returning from Sabalenka, who leathered her shots straight back, and the Pole's utterly ineffective serve.
Down a double break at 1-4, Swiatek responded with aggression of her own, returning close to the baseline and taking bigger cuts, sometimes going for broke and hitting winners while returning thunderous first serves.
The result was a marathon first set full of momentum shifts, both players getting out of trouble by getting crucial breaks, trading three each as it went into the breaker, where Sabalenka's superior serve blew the four-time champion away.
But as she returned for the second set, Swiatek knew she had found her feet in the match and the right strategy. She stayed true to it, turning up the aggression on return and taking a slender lead, following which it was the Pole who was more composed, incrementally improving her serve to level the match.
While the momentum had gone Swiatek's way, Sabalenka's superior power and serve did not desert her. In this topsy-turvy match, it was now her turn to bounce back. She came up with two immaculate service games, in between which she found the decisive moment to rain down massive groundstrokes and find the break to take a 3-0 lead in the decider. She would not drop a single game from there as Swiatek crumbled, her focus wavering in front of Sabalenka's newfound clean hitting.
'It (the third set) could not be more perfect than that,' Sabalenka would say. 'I'm super proud right now, I'm glad I found my serve.'