“Iga Swiatek can certainly chase down Chris Evert’s French Open record” – Pam Shriver
Former American tennis player Pam Shriver recently stated that Iga Swiatek has the ability to successfully chase down Chris Evert's record of seven French Open titles.
During her 17-year-long career from 1972 to 1989, Evert won a total of 18 Grand Slam titles, with seven of them coming at Roland Garros. Evert won her first clay court Major in the year 1974. She went on to win the title six more times in 1975, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1985, and 1986.
Swiatek, who is just 22 years old, has won three French Open titles already in 2020, 2022, 2023. On Tennis Channel's Inside-In podcast, Shriver stated that it was highly possible that the Pole could win four more Paris titles to equal Evert's tally.
"I do think Iga Swiatek can certainly chase down Chrissie’s [French Open] record, already with three. It’s hard to believe it’s two years ago this week that Iga played that crazy Roland Garros in the middle of October because of the pandemic. That’s what started to up her tally. So yeah, anything is possible," she said.
Shriver, however, cautioned that 16-year-old Mirra Andreeva, who has a 23-4 win-loss record on clay, might give Swiatek a run for her money in the future.
"I think she can. I mean, obviously, you don’t know what’s around the corner as far as if Andreeva for example just becomes a great claycourt player but who else looks as comfortable on clay… whether it’s a little older than Iga, the same age or little bit younger… NOBODY," Shriver added.
"I think Iga Swiatek bore the pressure of being the No. 1" - Pam Shriver
Iga Swiatek recently surrendered her World No. 1 spot to rival Aryna Sabalenka. During the podcast, Pam Shriver suggested that the pressure to hold on to the top rank spoiled the current World No. 2's mental grit.
"I'm sure she [Iga Swiatek] wanted to hang on to the World No. 1 ranking, I think she kind of… bore the pressure of [being] the No. 1, we could sort of see it gnawing away at her. So, it is good for her to have a little break and then chase it down again," Shriver said.
Iga Swaitek hit a rough patch after her French Open success and failed to accumulate enough wins to keep her WTA throne safe. Whereas, Sabalenka kept reducing the gap in the points tally and eventually succeeded in her bid to become the World No. 1 on September 11, 2023.
Swiatek reigned on the top for 75 weeks straight since taking the pole position from Ashleigh Barty on April 4, 2022. As of now, the 22-year-old stands 590 points behind Sabalenka in the WTA rankings.