Sabalenka snaps Swiatek streak to reach final

Beneath the closed roof of Court Philippe-Chatrier, Sabalenka’s celebration after she completed a flawless final set was of measured relief, a hint that the most important match against second seed Coco Gauff or scratch French wild card Lois Boisson was still ahead.

Following just her fifth victory from 13 encounters between the pair, there was a warm embrace for her fallen foe who was attempting to become the first woman to claim four straight titles in Paris.

“Honestly it feels incredible, but also, I understand that the job is not done yet. I'm just thrilled with the performance today with this win,” Sabalenka said.

“She's the toughest opponent and especially on the clay, especially at Roland-Garros. I'm proud that I was able to get this win. It was a tricky match, but I managed it somehow and I'm super proud right now.

“I'm glad that I found my serve (again in the deciding set) and it was a bit easier with the serve. I mean, 6-0, what can I say? It couldn't be more perfect than that.”

Disappointment is to be expected for former No.1 Swiatek, whose title drought now stretches beyond a year to last Roland-Garros.

The four-time champion in Paris, though, is confident she has turned the tide on a challenging start to the season and had succumbed to a better player on the day.

“I think the pace was from her super fast,” she said. “For sure, especially at the beginning of the match, she played just kind of as hard as possible and pretty risky. So it was just hard to get into any rally, you know.

“And then, you know, I was able to do that … and I could build a rally a little bit, but in the third set I feel like we kind of came back to what happened in the first, and she for sure used her chances, and I didn't really keep up what I was doing in second set.”

Ahead of the first meeting between the two multi-Slam champions of the year, Sabalenka, who had already equalled her deepest run in Paris from two years ago, had not dropped a set, including against Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen, and it was one-way traffic early on again under a closed roof at Court Philippe-Chatrier.

There wasn’t much the Pole did wrong in the early stages. She was simply being overpowered and after just 10 minutes trailed a double break.

Sabalenka’s strategy was clear from the outset and the numbers told the story as she struck the ball more than 700rpm flatter on her forehand than her average for the tournament. It was a bid to sap her opponent of time and it reaped rewards as she opened up a 4-1 advantage.

In the toughest of fourth rounds for a top-eight seed, Swiatek had rediscovered her mojo for arguably her biggest win of the past year over a resurgent Elena Rybakina from 6-1, 2-0 down before she carried that momentum past Elina Svitolina in the quarter-finals.

She needed to summon something similar again and on some of her most audacious shot-making of the tournament, looked more like the Swiatek of her confident old self when she pulled back level and snuck her nose in front for the first time for 5-4.

Both players were struggling to win points on their second serves – Sabalenka stood at 33 per cent and Swiatek at 31 per cent – late in the first set, but that was more down to them being two of the best returners in the game.

The fifth seed’s level had risen dramatically and although she was overwhelmed in the tiebreak, inroads had been made as she wrangled momentum to take control of the second set.

The pair hadn’t crossed paths on clay since Swiatek’s win in the Rome final more than a year ago and her opponent’s self-belief had only grown since with a third major at Flushing Meadows and three titles this year alone, which has helped cement her standing at the top of the pack.

In her 11th major semi-final, the most since Maria Sharapova 14 years ago, Sabalenka’s most significant match on clay looked as though it was slipping away before she wiped the slate clean and reasserted her dominance in a third-set whitewash.

Reassured and unwavering as the finish line approached, she did not commit a single unforced error in the deciding set for a resounding finish after two hours and 19 minutes.

It made her just the fourth player to reach the final at three straight majors this century after Justine Henin, and Venus and Serena Williams and gave her a shot at a third different major following two Australian Opens and a US Open.

“It's going to mean everything to me and my team, because I have to say that almost like the whole life I've been told where it is not my thing and then I didn't have any confidence,” she said.

“And in the past I don't know how many years, we've been able to develop my game so much, so I feel really comfortable on this surface and actually enjoy playing on clay. If I'll be able to get this trophy, it's just going to mean the world for us.”