NEW YORK — World number one Iga Swiatek beat Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur 6-2 7-6(5) in the US Open final to claim her maiden trophy at Flushing Meadows and third Grand Slam title.
It is the first U.S. Open championship for Swiatek, who won the French Open in 2020 and 2022. The 21-year-old from Poland also recorded her 10th career tournament victory, with all coming in straight sets, and now owns a 17-1 career record in tournament finals.
With her seventh trophy this season, Swiatek is the first on the WTA Tour to do so since Serena Williams in 2014.
Jabeur, 28, lost in a Grand Slam final for the second time this season. She fell to Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the Wimbledon final.
Jabeur, from Tunisia, is the first Arab woman to play in the US Open final. She committed 33 unforced errors and had 14 winners.
Upon received the $2.6 million winner’s check, Swiatek got a laugh from the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium when she said, “I’m really glad that is not in cash.”
“I needed to stay composed and focus on the goals,” Swiatek said during the trophy ceremony. “It’s New York — it’s so loud, it’s so crazy.
“It’s really mind-blowing for me. I’m really proud I could handle it mentally.”
“I really tried, but Iga didn’t make it easy for me,” Jabeur said in her on-court interview, tears in her eyes. “I don’t like her very much now, but it’s OK.
“We’ll get that [major] title sometime soon.”
This was the championship final the last Grand Slam event of 2022 deserved, Ons versus Iga — a worthy battle between the sport’s three-letter, first-name stars.
Swiatek, the game’s best returner, is the only player this year to break opponents’ serves more than half the time. In the first set against Jabeur, she scored three breaks in four games — she landed all 19 of her returns in play, an absurd 100 percent. At the same time, Swiatek put 90 percent of her first serves in (19-for-20), winning three of her four service games.
Serving the first game of the second set, Swiatek encountered her first deuce game. Her response? She painted the lines from both sides, which brought a furious fist pump. In the second game of the set, Swiatek broke Jabeur for the third straight time.
And then Swiatek’s level dropped and Jabeur broke her in the fifth game to get back on serve. Swiatek, naturally, came back to break Jabeur for the fifth time in seven games.
Back on serve at 4-all, Swiatek faced three break points and somehow held for 5-4 on the way to the tiebreak.
The US Open, near the end of a long year, with all its atmospheric conditions, might be the toughest of the Grand Slam events to win.
And in fact, given the impressive list of opponents, this was Swiatek’s statistically toughest road to a major title; the rank of her average opponent was 47, compared to 55 at this year’s Roland Garros and 78 for 2020 Roland Rarros.
Swiatek and Jabeur ranked, respectively, Nos.1 and No.2. They have scored the most victories on the Hologic WTA Tour over the past two years and are also one-two in the Race to the WTA Finals leaderboard. Both players were appearing in their second major final of the season.
But it was Swiatek who walked away with the bigger trophy and more prolific purse.
