Djokovic, Swiatek Capture French Open Singles Titles
The second major of 2023 has come and gone as the French Open wrapped up on Sunday, but not before the tournament delivered two weeks of thrilling tennis, culminating with Iga Swiatek capturing the Women’s Singles title, and Novak Djokovic hosting the Men’s Singles title.
Swiatek’s came first as she defeated Karolina Muchova 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 on Saturday to win at Roland Garros for a third time, and her fourth major title overall.
“Last year for sure it was a confirmation for me that the first time wasn’t a coincidence or something like that,” said Swiatek, who also won the event in 2022. “This one, for sure, it was a little bit tougher in terms of injuries and the pressure, and also coming back to this tournament as a defending champion. I feel like it’s a little bit different, and I needed to really handle that.”
The pressure was certainly on Swiatek’s shoulders, and the world number one actually fell behind a break twice in that deciding third set. But her relentless play guided her to getting each of those breaks back, and at 5-4 in the final set, she conjured up one more break to secure the match and lift the trophy.
“In the third set I didn’t want to have any regrets about the second,” she said. “I just kind of looked forward, and I said to myself, ‘Okay, you know what? I’m just going to give it my all.’ No thinking, no analyzing. Just play my game, use my intuition, and that really helped.”
On Sunday, Djokovic seeked to move ahead of Rafael Nadal on the all-time majors list. Standing in his way was Norway’s Casper Ruud who was making his second appearance in a French Open final.
Ruud got off to a great start in the opening set and built a 4-1 lead. But Djokovic was able to get the break back and forced the set into a tiebreaker, which the Serbian quickly dominated to seize control of the set.
As we have come to expect, Djokovic raised his game to another level during and after that tiebreaker, going on to win 7-6(1), 6-3, 7-5 to win his 23rd career major.
“Obviously a Grand Slam is a Grand Slam,” said Djokovic. “The four biggest tournaments that we have in our sport. Every single player dreams of being on this stage and winning the trophy at least once in their career. I’m beyond fortunate in my life to win 23 times, it’s an incredible feeling.”
As a result of his win, Djokovic moves back into the world number one ranking.
2023 French Open Champions
Men’s Singles: Novak Djokovic
Women’s Singles: Iga Swiatek
Men’s doubles: Ivan Dodig / Austin Krajicek
Women’s doubles: Hsieh Su-wei / Wang Xinyu
Mixed doubles: Miyu Kato / Tim Pütz
Wheelchair men’s singles: Tokito Oda
Wheelchair women’s singles: Diede de Groot
Wheelchair quad singles: Niels Vink
Wheelchair men’s doubles: Alfie Hewett / Gordon Reid
Wheelchair women’s doubles: Yui Kamiji / Kgothatso Montjane
Wheelchair quad doubles: Andy Lapthorne / Donald Ramphadi
Boys’ singles: Dino Prižmić
Girls’ singles: Alina Korneeva
Boys’ doubles: Yaroslav Demin / Rodrigo Pacheco Méndez
Girls’ doubles: Tyra Caterina Grant / Clervie Ngounoue
