Iga Swiatek is quickly becoming the Queen of Clay.
The 23-year-old Pole won her fourth French Open crown on Saturday, defeating Italian rising star Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-1.
The win puts Swiatek as the top-5 winningest women’s player to capture the title in Paris, surpassing Serena Williams, and Monica Seles, among others. The current record holder is Chris Evert with seven.
While Swiatek’s road to winning the 2024 championship was relatively smooth, she had to face one big hurdle in the second round against former Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka. Swiatek found herself down a match point against hard-hitting Osaka but found a way to take home the win in three tight sets.
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"I was almost out of the tournament in the second round so thank you guys for staying behind my back and cheering for me," Swiatek said after the win. "I also needed to believe that this one was going to be possible. It has been a very emotional tournament so thank you for supporting me."
Since the Osaka clash, Swiatek has cruised past impressive opponents, only dropping two games in the Round of 16 and quarterfinals. In the semifinals, she downed American Coco Gauff convincingly to book her third straight French Open final.
Here's just one other indication of how dominant Swiatek is on clay: She added this triumph to those on the slow surface at Madrid and Rome last month, becoming the first woman to win all three events since Serena Williams did it in 2013.
During Saturday's postmatch ceremony, Swiatek was flanked by a pair of women who each won 18 Grand Slam singles titles, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. Evert said before this French Open that she thinks Swiatek could eventually surpass her women's record of seven championships in Paris.
Swiatek will carry her momentum to the grass courts of London where she will be the No. 1 seed in singles play at Wimbledon. Her best result to date at the All England Club was in 2023, reaching the quarterfinals. She did, however, win the junior Wimbledon singles title in 2018.
Paolini, on the other hand, also has a lot of momentum to carry into the grass court swing. The world No. 15 will find herself ranked in the top 10 when the new rankings come out on Monday.
But her job at the French Open is not done yet. She will compete in the doubles final with partner Italy's Sara Errani on Sunday against 2023 U.S. Open singles champion Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova.
Following the doubles final, the men's singles final will feature Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Zverev. The French Open final airs live on NBC and Peacock from Roland Garros in Paris at 9 a.m. ET. The match will also stream on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app.
The Associated Press contributed to this story
