World No. 1 Iga Swiatek wins her third major title at the US Open
Iga Swiatek of Poland celebrates after winning the women’s singles final match against Serena Williams at the 2018 US Open on Monday., in the first Grand Slam tournament of the year in New York.(Photo: David J. Phillip, AP)
New York — Playing on a day named after itself, Iga Swiatek, a 22-year-old pro tennis player from Poland, won her third Grand Slam title, easily beating Serena Williams 6-2, 6-2 on Sunday night, to become the first Polish player to win a Grand Slam singles title.
Swiatek became the first player from Poland to win a Grand Slam title since Katarzyna Piter in 2006.
The first two Grand Slam singles titles went to Americans Venus and Serena, who are the only women to have won three of the four majors. Piter followed in 2005 and 2007.
It was perhaps not the most memorable of title winners, but it was a fitting way to end the first Grand Slam tournament in 2018.
Swiatek will be joined in next week’s women’s singles final by the winner of the French Open final, Carla Suarez Navarro, who was forced to withdraw from next week’s tournament with a knee injury.
Swiatek, the daughter of a tennis coach and tennis instructor, started playing the sport in sixth grade. She later won her first major junior tournament, the ITF Internazionali di Tennis Internazionale di Nice (ITI), where she defeated Venus Williams in the final and was then invited to compete at the junior level in the main draw. Swiatek then won the under-19 claycourt tournament in Portugal the same year. She went on to win the ITF Junior Tour’s top singles event in Madrid in 2015, defeating Agnieszka Radwanska in the final, and she is
