NEW YORK – World No. 1 Yiga Swiatek defeated Tunisia’s Onz Jabbar to win in straight sets in the US Open final on Saturday (September 10) to claim her second Grand Slam title of the year.
At Arthur Ashe Stadium, Polish star Spheretek won the second set 6-2 7-6 (7/5) after a hard-fought comeback from 5th seed Jabbar in 1 hour and 52 minutes.
The win follows Swiertek’s win at the French Open in June, making her the first woman since 2016 to win two Grand Slams in one season.
Swiatek’s 10th career title extended her incredible record of tournament finals.
She has now won her last 10 finals without dropping a set.
But the loss was another painful near miss for Jabbar, who was aiming to become the first African woman to win a Grand Slam.
The 28-year-old from Tunis also lost the Wimbledon final in July.
Jabbar impressed en route to the final, dropping just one set and stringing together a string of solid performances.
But with her serve and signature forehand functioning smoothly, she was in trouble almost from the start against the clinical Swiatek, who quickly began her stride.
Jabbar, by contrast, looked nervous and fell in love in her first service game.
Swiatek held on easily, leading 3-0 in just eight minutes in the first set.
Jabeur threatened revival before breaking to close the gap to 3-2.
However, the fifth seed was again let down by a shaky service game in question in Saturday’s final, with Swiatek breaking back to take a 4-2 lead.
Jabbar held the set on serve and Swiertek won the first set.
Swiatek threatened to walk away in the second set after breaking Jabeur and leading 3-0.
Still, Jabbar showed determination to beat Swiertek and cut the deficit to 3-2.
But again Jabbar failed to count his serve break and Swirtek broke again to take a 4-2 lead.
But this time, Jabbar dug deep and got back into the contest, aided by luck when Swiertek’s return clipped the netcord to score a serve break.
The momentum suddenly changed as Jabeur held to tie the score at 4-4.
The next three games went on serve and Jabbar was left on serve to stay in the match. She held match point at 6-6 after battling her 5-6 and her 30-40 down. AFPMore
Jabeur recovered from a 4-2 down to lead 5-4 in the tiebreaker, but Swiatek was more composed and scored the second match point when Jabeur hit a long return.
Norway’s Casper Ruud will face Spanish teenager Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s final on Sunday (Monday morning Singapore time).
