World number one Iga Swiatek defeated Ons Jabeur of Tunisia to claim her second Grand Slam title of the year with a straight set victory in Saturday’s US Open final. Polish star Swiatek overcame a determined second-set match from fifth seed Jabeur to win 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) in 1 hour 52 minutes at Arthur Stadium. Ash. The win follows Swiatek’s victory at the French Open in June, making the 21-year-old the first woman since 2016 to win two Grand Slams in a single season.
Swiatek’s 10th career title also extends her remarkable record in tournament finals.
She has now won her last 10 finals without dropping a set.
But the loss was a near-miss for Jabeur, who had bid to become the first African woman to win a Grand Slam.
The 28-year-old Tunis player was also defeated in the Wimbledon final in July.
Jabeur impressed on his way to the finals, dropping only a single set and piecing together a string of solid performances.
But she struggled almost right from the start against clinical Swiatek, who entered a quick stride with a forehand serve and her signature working smoothly.
In contrast, Jabeur looked restless and heartbroken in her first serving game.
Swiatek easily held the draw to take a 3-0 lead after just 8 minutes in the first half.
Jabeur threatened a resurgence as she held the draw and then broke to close the gap to 3-2.
But the fifth seed was frustrated by her erratic serve, a problem during Saturday’s final, and Swiatek took the lead 4-2.
Jabeur broke serve again when she served in the set and Swiatek made the first set.
Swiatek threatened to run away in the second set after breaking Jabeur and holding the draw to make it 3-0.
However, Jabeur proved very determined to concede Swiatek to shorten the score to 3-2.
However, once again Jabeur failed to time the service break and Swiatek broke through to take a 4-2 lead.
This time, however, Jabeur dug deep to get back into the competition, aided in part by luck when one returner to Swiatek cut a net rope to avoid a service break.
Jabeur tried to level the score 4-4 and suddenly the momentum changed.
The next three games were with serve and Jabeur was served to stay in the game. She fought a match-point at 5-6 and took down 30-40 before keeping the score 6-6.
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Jabeur recovered from 4-2 to take a 5-4 lead in the break, but Swiatek showed more composure, converting her second game point when Jabeur missed a long return.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from the syndication feed.)
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