Before the void, the guarantee of the champion Swiatek

As Iga Swiatek imposes her iron fist (6-2 and 7-6(5), in 1h 51m) and vanishes all hope for the Tunisian Ons Jabeur, the African pride of these days in tennis, there are those who consider the possibility that New York has been a hinge tournament between yesterday and tomorrow. There is already a champion, and who knows if I really take over. Serena Williams left in style, that is, an era, an empire, a winner impossible to reproduce, and now the Pole continues to take flight, who for the first time summits in New York and resizes herself: there are 21 years in the DNI, and three large in two different surfaces, obtained in a margin of three years. Who gives more? Easy: Nobody.

The final is the living portrait of what has been happening almost all season. Jabeur, who, as happened to him two months ago at Wimbledon, has come out to the final too tense, a bundle of nerves again, is a I want and I can’t that collides again and again against a titanium fence. Swiatek wields rock. The number one opens the gap quickly and every time the rival tries to get closer, she accelerates. She shows the candy and hides it. He applies it in the first set and in the second, when the African has scrambled, he reduces her with a slap –in the tiebreaker, after Jabeur had drawn a match point earlier– that seals the duel and raises her again from new.

The Australian Ashleigh Barty said in March, when she retired while at the top, that if there was a player capable of picking up the baton, it was her, Swiatek. And the Polish does not disappoint, quite the opposite. Spurred by the speech of her predecessor at the controls of the circuit, she put the turbo and chained 37 consecutive victories, which gave her the titles of Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart and Roland Garros; she failed to clear the third-round barrier at Wimbledon, but now she brings another twist to the present in New York. When in doubt, the ups and downs and the void left, Swiatek.

“This tournament was a great challenge, because after winning a big [su segundo Roland Garros, en junio] it is difficult to win another one”, says the champion, who has only dropped one set on the way to the title (in the third round) and who has become the first number one who has been able to win the New York tournament since Serena Williams did it in 2014. In a final, Swiatek hardly failed; With the exception of the first one that she played, in Lugano (2019), the other ten are counted by victories.

Facing the indecision of the rest of the players, she and the creative Jabeur have stepped forward. They are the best of the course, the most regular – they lead the list of triumphs, with 55 and 44 respectively – and the first two of the ranking; however, between one and the other there is an abyss of 5,300 points.

The Polish, born in Warsaw, displays a solid and physical game, fueled by extraordinary footwork and her ability to escape at critical moments. Before this season began, she was reproached for suffering too far from her comfort zone, clay, but the most incisive version of her has also given her a shine on cement; now, half of her trophies come from the hard surface. More and more settled, more and more strong, Swiatek definitively raises her arm: today, she rules here.

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