After Facing Her Biggest Challenge in a Final Yet, Iga Swiatek Wins Her Third French Open

On a hot, windy day at the 2023 French Open, women’s world number-one Iga Swiatek—who turned 22 during the tournament—took on the unseeded Karolína Muchová, of the Czech Republic, in a thrilling three-set match, winning 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. Swiatek, of Poland, was the top-seeded player at Roland-Garros, eyeing her third win there and her fourth Grand Slam title overall. And indeed, she was on a fiery streak going into today’s final, having won in straight sets for the last few weeks—and at all of her prior appearances in finals.

Her big win in Paris today made Swiatek the first woman player to take two consecutive titles at the French since Justine Henin did it in 2006 and 2007, and only the fifth woman in the Open era to win three. (With her seven, Chris Evert still holds the record for women’s wins at Roland-Garros.) Swiatek is now also the youngest woman to win four career major titles since Serena Williams did it at 20, 21 years ago.

Swiatek’s 26-year-old opponent Muchová, however—the world number-43—played some exceptional tennis at her maiden Grand Slam final. On an astonishing 5-0 winning streak against top-three players going into this match (her semifinal victory against world number-two Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday was a highlight of the week), Muchová, who left Roland-Garros in tears last year after suffering an ankle injury, forced Swiatek to her first third set in a major final.