PARIS — Iga Swiatek took a major step forward in her quest for a record fourth straight French Open title — and fifth overall — when she beat Elena Rybakina 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 on Sunday.
Swiatek, who has struggled for top form this year and whose last final was at Roland-Garros 12 months ago, trailed by a set and 2-0 but found her game when she needed it most to advance to the quarterfinals, where she will play Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.
How did she do it and what does it mean for her? Here’s three takeaways from a potentially crucial win.
Swiatek found her serve
Rybakina, a former Wimbledon champion and the winner in Strasbourg on the eve of the French Open, was on fire in the first set, blasting 12 winners and putting Swiatek under constant pressure. The biggest problem for Swiatek was her serve, an area of her game she has been tweaking under the tutelage of her coach Wim Fissette, but which has been a struggle throughout the clay-court season.
As the first five games slipped away in little over 20 minutes, Swiatek was well below 50 percent on first serve, and when she needed to hit a second, she was winning just 20 percent of the points. She steadied the ship a little at the end of the set to at least get on the board, but her serve was letting her down. In the second set, she took a little pace off, going for more angle, using more body serves, and as Rybakina’s level dipped slightly, she worked her way back into the match.
By the end, she was up at 57 percent and with Rybakina below 50, she had time to get into the points and turn the match around.
Swiatek stayed patient, upped the spin
In her well-documented struggles this spring, the wheels have come off the Swiatek game when she’s been in trouble, with early losses in Stuttgart and Rome and a humbling by Coco Gauff in Madrid. But this time, though there were mutterings towards her team at times, she stayed calm enough to think clearly and change things.
Standing a little deeper on returns, she was able to get into the points better on the Rybakina serve and began to use her crosscourt forehand to great effect, pulling her opponent out of court.
At 2-2 in the second, she survived three straight double-faults on the ad court to hold and lead in a set for the first time and from then on, her confidence grew.
Even at 4-4 in the deciding set, when she thought she had broken serve only for a Rybakina double fault to be changed by the umpire on examination of the mark, she stayed patient. She held to love in the next game, breaking for 6-5 and serving out for victory.
“First set I felt like I was playing against Jannik Sinner,” she said. “I needed to do something to get back into the game, the way she was playing, I didn’t have a lot of hopes, but I kept fighting. At the end I was able to play my game so I was happy.”
What could this mean for Swiatek?
Everything. Sometimes it only takes one moment, one big result, to turn around a player’s season and the way Swiatek celebrated as her final forehand sped away for a winner, with a double fist pump, emitted a combination of joy and relief.
A month ago, this might have been a match that got away, quickly, but this was much more like the old, normal Swiatek, ripping forehands with vicious spin, finding solutions when required. When Rybakina beat Jelena Ostapenko, whose 6-0 head-to-head advantage over Swiatek would have been in Swiatek’s head again had they met in Paris, it seemed like it was a stroke of luck. But a win over Rybakina, who had beaten Swiatek four times out of eight, won both their previous meetings on clay and was playing incredible tennis, could be a win that starts to restore her aura of invincibility.
Swiatek’s biggest rivals for the title, who came into the event sensing that she was vulnerable, will take notice.
