By Shrivathsa Sridhar
PARIS (Reuters) -Iga Swiatek’s 26-match winning streak at the French Open ground to a screeching halt as her title defence ended on Thursday but the Pole said she was happy to have enjoyed a glorious run at the claycourt Grand Slam.
Swiatek’s bid for a fifth Roland Garros title went up in smoke after world number one Aryna Sabalenka prevailed 7-6(1) 4-6 6-0 on Court Philippe Chatrier.
The defeat was a blow for Swiatek, who was hoping to claim her first title in a patchy year for the usually dominant 24-year-old following a short doping ban in 2024, but she said she was glad to have Roland Garros to come back to year after year.
“I love playing here, so for sure I’m happy I was fortunate enough to play so many great tournaments here. Even this one, I played better than weeks before,” Swiatek told reporters.
“So I’m just happy that I have this place to come back to every year and just try to push myself.”
Sabalenka’s power made all the difference to end Swiatek’s dreams of becoming the first woman in the professional era since 1968 to win four consecutive titles in Paris.
“The pace was from her super fast,” Swiatek said.
“Especially in the beginning of the match, she played as hard as possible and pretty risky. So it was just hard to get into any rally.
“And then, I was able to do that … so more things happened because it wasn’t just like serve and one shot or return and one shot, and I could build a rally a little bit.
“But in the third set I feel like we came back to what happened in the first, and she used her chances, and I didn’t really keep up what I was doing in the second set.”
Swiatek showed plenty of determination in her previous two rounds to see off 13th seed Elina Svitolina and 12th seed Elena Rybakina, and she said she was satisfied with the quality she showed during the tournament.
“Now it’s probably not the best time to look at the wider perspective,” Swiatek said.
“So probably it wasn’t a bad tournament, but obviously not the result I wanted.”
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in ParisEditing by Toby Davis)
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