End of the Iga Swiatek era: How Aryna Sabalenka crushed French Open Queen to bring down her title defense
The era of Iga Swiatek started not long after Ashleigh Barty retired and seems to have come to a screeching halt with her loss in the French Open semifinals. Not to be too melodramatic, but Swiatek hadn’t looked like the dominant force for a very long time.
The last sort of argument that many of her supporters had was that she was still the dominant force on clay. Well, not anymore. The four-time champion who won the three previous editions of the French Open won’t be winning the event this year.
She was stopped in the semi-final by world number one Aryna Sabalenka, and with that, the era of Iga Swiatek has seemingly ended. Arguably, it ended a while ago because Swiatek hasn’t really been as impressive this year compared to the past.
There are some numbers to back that up. Let’s take the number of losses for the Polish superstar because there haven’t been too many in the past few years. She lost nine matches in 2022, 12 in 2023, nine last year, and she’s up to 10 losses already this year.
So we’re at the halfway mark of the season, and Swiatek has already lost more matches than she did in the entire last year. It was only in 2023 that she lost more matches, and the tenth loss came only in September.
By all metrics, this is arguably the most underwhelming season she’s played in the last couple of years. She has truly looked the most vulnerable on court she’s ever looked.
Then came the French Open, and she looked like getting back to her vintage best. She was playing so well, in fact, that many considered her the favorite heading into the fixture against Sabalenka, and it made sense. She was, after all, arguably the better player on clay between her and Sabalenka.
She moves better, she has a better game for clay, but the crucial thing that ultimately swayed the match into Sabalenka’s favor was that she was lacking the confidence that Sabalenka brought to the fixture. When things unraveled, they truly unraveled for her, and Sabalenka was able to put an end to her title defense.
How Aryna Sabalenka ended the era of Iga Swiatek
The match was anticipated to be a close one. It lasted well over two hours and saw both players win a set. What was shocking was how powerless Swiatek looked in the final set. Let’s look at how the match progressed. The opening set started with Sabalenka taking a 3-0 lead.
She was better early and on top, but Swiatek was able to fight back and take a 5-4 lead. Then after that, we saw Sabalenka break again and take a 6-5 lead but lose the break, so we ended up in a tiebreak.
It was all Sabalenka in that one, as she dominated and won 7-1. Swiatek fought back nicely in the second set, playing a really clean set without too many mistakes. She was aggressive in both sets but didn’t try to do as much in the second set.
She had fewer winners but, crucially, fewer mistakes as well—14 less to be precise—which made all the difference. Everybody expected a close third set, but it didn’t happen. Sabalenka dominated and left everyone by surprise.
She had the confidence that Swiatek lacked, and she took it to the Polish player. An early break became a double break, and it became a bagel. Swiatek was shell-shocked and couldn’t do anything. She won 3 of 15 points on her serve in that set.
She won six of 30 points overall in that set. It was sheer dominance from Sabalenka. Swiatek’s era is over. Not because she doesn’t have it in her anymore, but because she’s been playing without her signature confidence for a while now, second-guessing herself at all times.
It was evident that Swiatek had no plan B here. When Sabalenka turned it on, the Pole faltered. After 26 consecutive wins at Roland Garros and a 40-2 overall record at the event, Swiatek was beaten. Fair and square.
As for Sabalenka, she put on an exhibition to assert her dominance. It’s been her era for a while now, and today was arguably the crowning moment of that era, winning against the best clay player of the last five years, and deservedly so.