By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, June 2, 2022
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek dismissed Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1 scoring her 34th consecutive victory to roll into her second Roland Garros final.
Photo credit: Getty
Facing fear is a prerequisite for premier champions.
Iga Swiatek was hardly spooked by the prospect of her fourth meeting of the year with dangerous Daria Kasatkina.
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Combining force and finesse with frightening mastery, Swiatek crushed Kasatkina 6-2, 6-1 scoring her 34th consecutive victory to roll into her second Roland Garros final.
The 2020 champion cracked 22 winners compared to 10 for her opponent in a 64-minute thrashing. Swiatek swept Kasatkina for the fourth time in as many meetings this season and looked completely comfortable doing it improving her 2022 record to an eye-popping 41-3.
"Being able to be in the final again, it's great, especially when I didn't know actually how I'm gonna play here after so many tournaments that I played," Swiatek told the media in Paris. "It seemed kind of obvious for me that the streak may come to an end soon.
"So I just wanted to take it really step by step. I didn't have any exact goals on this tournament. And just seeing how my game is developing every match, it's something that's giving me a lot of hope, and I'm just proud of myself."
World No. 1 Swiatek's 34-match winning streak equals Serena Williams (2013) as the second longest WTA Tour streak this century. Swiatek can match Venus Williams' 35-match winning streak set during the 2000 season by taking the title on Saturday.
"I just wanted to be aggressive from the beginning and really lead the match," Swiatek told Tennis Channel's Jon Wertheim afterward. "I’m pretty happy I did not let Daria play her game because I know how solid she is and she’s playing even more solid in this tournament.
"I tried just to not let her play her topspin and not let her push me back. I’m really happy I can play my tactics."
A dominant Swiatek surged through 10 of the last 11 games today, including rampaging through three of the last five games at love. Swiatek will carry a 20-2 Roland Garros record into the final. Only Hall of Famers Margaret Court and Chrissie Evert hold higher career winning percentages in Paris than Swiatek.
It's been 106 days since Swiatek lost her last match to 2017 French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko in Dubai.
On Saturday, Swiatek will play for her second Roland Garros title in the last three years facing either 18th-seeded Coco Gauff or Italian left-hander Martina Trevisan.
On the warmest day of the tournament, Swiatek opened with a double fault as the Court Philippe Chatrier crowd was still finding seats. Then the top seed dropped the hammer slamming a series of forehands to hold.
Contesting her first major semifinal, a twitchy Kasatkina faced immediate pressure fending off three break points, including cracking an ace and a fine drop volley winner. The Russian fought hard to protect serve, but shoveled a short backhand into the net as Swiatek broke capping a 14-point game.
Squinting into the sun, Swiatek showed some jitters double-faulting into a double-break point hole. Kasatkina rapped a forehand winner down the line, wrong-footing the world No. 1, to break back in game three.
On the full stretch, Swiatek flicked a forehand squash shot back into play. Kasatkina was a few feet from net waiting, but the sidespin from the squash shot fooled her and she badly bungled an easy sitter well wide to face double break point. Swiatek made her pay for that miscue spinning a forehand winner to break again for 4-2.
Deploying her favored serve-forehand combination, Swiatek hit the slice serve wide to displace the Russian then rapped a forehand winner down the line. The top seed's third straight game put her up 5-2.
Awaiting a wide second serve, Swiatek swatted a short-angled backhand return breaking at love to snatch a one-set lead in 36 minutes.
The crafty Kasatkina said Swiatek's ability to intercept angles, take the ball early and hit her groundstrokes with so much penetrating power was just too much to handle today.
"I think her moving pattern [is key], she's moving really well. She is reaching a lot of balls," Kasatkina said of Swiatek. "I mean, even some of the balls that you are thinking that the point is over, she's still there, and she's taking the ball pretty early, which makes it really tough.
"Yeah, it's difficult when the player is moving good and then she can transit this to attack mode. Then it's make it really, really tough."
The 20th-seeded Russian knew she had to sustain a high first-serve percentage to hang close with the world No. 1. The good news for Kasatkina was she served 82 percent in that first set. The bad news is Swiatek slammed her second serve winning five of six second serve points and breaking serve three times.
As the set progressed, Swiatek was playing shorter points crunching her topspin forehand with menace. Swiatek won 17 points that spanned four shots or fewer nearly doubling Kasatkina in that category in the opener.
Showing her all-court skills, Swiatek thumped a smash and drew an errant forehand earning her fourth break for a 3-1 second-set lead.
The pace, spin and depth of Swiatek’s drives combined with Kasatkina’s comfort zone several feet behind the baseline gave the Russian little opportunity to generate offense in the second set.
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“Poland Garros” read the sign a Swiatek fan waved in the crowd. Seeing the finish line, the 21-year-old Pole sprinted through it.
Lashing a backhand down the line, Swiatek slashed a forehand winner for triple match point.
Swiatek slammed an ace to seal her second Roland Garros final in the last three years with an exclamation point.