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Iga Swiatek lifted her second Grand Slam title of the year at the 2022 US Open, defeating Ons Jabeur in the final on Saturday. Taking on the Tunisian, who was playing her second consecutive Slam final, Swiatek looked at her sublime best during the 6-2, 7-6(5) straight-sets win.
The Pole had not looked comfortable throughout the tournament, scrapping through the earlier rounds with hard-fought wins. In the final, however, she looked sharp from the very beginning, breaking the Tunisian thrice during the first set. The second set was more closely contested, but the experience of having already won a Grand Slam came in handy for the 21-year-old, who held her nerves in the tiebreaker to hold off a late charge from Jabeur.
With the victory, Swiatek became only the ninth player in the Open Era to win three Grand Slam titles before turning 22, joining a celebrated list that includes the likes of the Williams sisters, Maria Sharapova and others. She also became the first-ever Pole to win the title at Flushing Meadows, as well as the first woman since Serena Williams in 2014 to win the tournament as the top seed.
Tennis fans on social media were understandably awed by the three-time Grand Slam champion's dominance, showering her with praise in the aftermath of the win. One fan hoped this US Open win would help launch Swiatek into popular culture and that casual tennis fans could finally start appreciating her, lamenting how she has been flying under the radar for so long despite being a generational talent.
"Excited for it to slowly dawn on tennis normies or many of the more casual fans quite how good Iga Swiatek is as she keeps racking up Slams. Been bloody obvious for ages to those who do follow the sport but she still seems a bit under the radar despite being generationally good."
Another user remarked that no individual statistic can come close to capturing the degree of the World No. 1's dominance this year, a season that has seen her lift seven titles so far.
"Iga Swiatek is a three-time major champion at the age of 21, winning titles on both hard court and clay. Feel like we need an individual stat better than World No. 1 to properly explain how dominant she has been this year."
Ons Jabeur also received a lot of praise from tennis fans for the resilience she displayed, with many noting that she will surely win a Grand Slam in the coming years if she can keep up this level. One fan wrote about the same:
"Tough, tough loss for Jabeur, with all that incredible play and resilience in the second set not quite being enough, but if she keeps putting herself in positions like these, it will happen for her."
Here are a few more reactions from fans:
Iga Swiatek now has more than twice as many ranking points as the World No. 2
Thanks to the 2000 ranking points from her title run at the 2022 US Open, Iga Swiatek now has 10,365 points to her name. The World No. 2 position, meanwhile, has switched hands from Anett Kontaveit to Ons Jabeur, who has a total of 5,090 points after her runner-up finish at Flushing Meadows.
With more than twice as many points as the next best-ranked player, the Pole is guaranteed to finish the year as the World No. 1. 2022 will also mark Iga Swiatek's best chance to win the Year-end Championships, a tournament she made her maiden appearance at last year.
