Pam Shriver, the great former doubles partner of Martina Navratilova, senses there is the potential for an exciting new dynamic. She, Kenin and the likes of Naomi Osaka, who won the US Open last month, are faces who can shape the future of women's tennis.Īnd with the men's tennis Big Three approaching their dotage, the women's game could see the sort of boon, with real rivalries between grand slam winners, that it has arguably lacked for some time. Swiatek's world ranking of 54 makes no sense in the context of this fortnight, and it will take a major leap forward next week. Hers is a joyous game to behold, a mix of blistering power and trickery that has made her the favourite for the match with many observers, despite Kenin having won the Australian Open at the start of the year. But my parents, they weren't as open to that as I was." "I don't know how I made the decision when I was younger, but I always wanted to work with a psychologist," Swiatek said. "I had this belief that it's like a big part of the game. Her casual dismissiveness is of course not simply down to the insouciance of youth, and can perhaps be most closely traced to the work she and Abramowicz put in, taking the stress out of situations.
"The final is also a great result, so really I have no pressure." I'm going to just play my best tennis," she said. "I don't care if I'm going to lose or win. In the Open Era, there have been 13 previous teenage women's singles champions at majors.īut amid the attention, the player who chewed up top seed and title favourite Simona Halep in the fourth round is taking each experience in her stride, guided by a travelling sports psychologist in Daria Abramowicz.Īnd Swiatez is impervious, it seems, to not only the scale of her achievement but the stakes involved.
She is being heralded a new superstar of tennis, and can joins the ranks of teenage grand slam winners at Roland Garros, a passport to prosperity.
Swiatek has remarkably dropped just 23 games in six singles matches, the fewest by a French Open finalist since Mary Pierce lost only 10 games while sprinting to the 1994 title match. Until she and Nicole Melichar were beaten in the semi-finals of the doubles on Friday, sliding 7-6 (7-5) 1-6 6-4 to Alexa Guarachi and Desirae Krawczyk, this had been a fortnight where the former Wimbledon girls' champion appeared unbeatable. On the day before the biggest match of her life against Sofia Kenin, the Polish 19-year-old had a gentle reality check when her hopes of a twin triumph in Paris were scotched. Iga Swiatek has made the bold, charmingly teenage claim that she doesn't care whether she wins or loses Saturday's French Open final.
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