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Iga Swiatek joins list of five women to win 20+ consecutive French Open matches
By Oli Dickson Jefford,
2024-06-07
Chris Evert and Iga Swiatek are among the five women to win 20+ plus French Open matches in a row.
Iga Swiatek has been doing what she does best at the French Open this year: win.
The Pole is in a fourth final at Roland Garros and will look to make it a fourth title in five years when she takes to court on Saturday against Jasmine Paolini .
The world No 1 has been collecting achievement after achievement in recent weeks, and her semi-final win over Coco Gauff ticked yet another box.
Swiatek has now won 20 consecutive French Open matches – making her just the fifth woman in the Open Era to do so.
Iga Swiatek (20, 2022-2024)
Swiatek hit 20 straight Roland Garros wins with victory over Gauff on Thursday and is highly fancied to make it 21 with a victory in the final over Paolini.
After a quarter-final loss to Maria Sakkari in 2021, the Pole rebounded to win her second title at the tournament in 2022, dispatching Daria Kasatkina in the last four before beating Gauff in the final.
And she came into the French Open this year as the defending champion, storming through the draw in 2023 before battling past Karolina Muchova in a thrilling final.
Her streak was nearly snapped in round two against Naomi Osaka last week, but she has been in cruise control since then.
One of tennis’ most popular champions, Graf starred at Roland Garros throughout her career, winning six titles in Paris.
The first of her 22 Grand Slam titles came at the tournament in 1987, beating long-term rival Gabriela Sabatini in a three-set semi-final before battling past Martina Navratilova in the final.
She made it 14 straight match wins at the French Open with her 1988 title defence, one of the most dominant title runs of all time, ending with her double-bagelling Natasha Zvereva in the final.
Graf made it 20 Roland Garros wins in a row by making it a third straight final in 1989, but blew a 5-3 lead in the deciding set in a loss to Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.
The best female clay-courter of the 21st century pre-Swiatek, Henin dominated the tournament throughout the mid-2000s.
After a shock round two loss when defending her title in 2004, the Belgian bounced back to win her second French Open in 2005, storming through the draw before thrashing Mary Pierce in the final.
She ultimately made it three titles in a row at Roland Garros, downing Svetlana Kuznetsova in the 2006 final and then Ana Ivanovic in the 2007 final to achieve 21 wins on the trot.
Returning from retirement in 2010, Henin extended her run to 24 matches in a row before a round four defeat to Sam Stosur – her final ever match at the tournament.
Monica Seles (25, 1990-1996)
Alongside Henin, Seles is – as it stands – one of only two women to win three straight titles at the French Open in the Open Era.
Aged 16 years and six months, she remains the youngest French Open champion in history after winning her first title in 1990, beating fellow teen star Jennifer Capriati in the last four before fending off Graf in the final.
She then dropped just one set on her way to a successful title defence in 1991, beating Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the final, before sealing a ‘threepeat’ in 1992 as she again edged past Graf in an all-time classic.
Seles returned to the event in 1996 when she made her comeback from her stabbing and made it 25 straight wins in a row before a quarter-final loss to Jana Novotna.
The most accomplished female clay-courter in history, it should be no surprise to see Evert out in front on this list.
After losing the 1973 final, Evert won her first major at the 1974 French Open by beating Olga Morozova in the final and then defended her title by beating Martina Navratilova in the final 12 months later.
Evert skipped the next three editions but returned in 1979 and dropped just one set on her way to triumph, dropping just two games in the final against Wendy Turnbull.
The American extended her winning run by claiming the title again in 1980, beating Virginia Ruzici, but saw her 29-match win streak snapped by Hana Mandlikova in their 1981 semi-final clash.
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