The champion lost a set for the first time in this tournament but she knew how to drag herself out of a dangerous place
The man holding the camera leaned in towards Iga Swiatek. The man holding the pen held it out to her. The new French Open champion thought for a while about how to encapsulate her torrent of thoughts and emotions into a little glass square around the size of a Pop Tart. Eventually she scrawled a number – #4, for her fourth grand slam title – and a single word. “Surréel.”
And it really was surreal, or at least as about as surreal as it can ever be watching a habitual major champion win another major. For if the outcome was expected then virtually nothing else about this final was. It was one thing, and then suddenly it became a whole other thing: a regal procession that somehow morphed into a scrap for survival against the fearless and admirable Karolina Muchova, a match that dragged the world No 1 to places she had never been before, places she never wanted to go.
More Stories
Keir Starmer seeks 2030 host for troubled Commonwealth Games
David Warner’s lifetime leadership ban lifted six years after ball-tampering scandal
Premier League: 10 things to look out for this weekend