Iga Swiatek could surpass her record of seven French Open titles, says Chris Evert
Swiatek has been No. 1 in the WTA rankings for most of the past two years and will seek her fourth championship at Roland Garros, and fifth Grand Slam trophy overall.
No less an authority on clay-court tennis than Chris Evert thinks her record of seven French Open championships could be surpassed by Iga Swiatek.
“Absolutely,” Evert, a member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, said in a phone interview. “Iga is a player on a mission. She’s more focused. She doesn’t get upset at all when she’s losing. She just has all the ingredients to be a champion. She really does. She checks all the boxes — the intangibles and the tangibles.”
“I just think Iga is the most solid of all players out there. She doesn’t seem to have any big holes in her game,” said Evert, who collected her prizes at Roland Garros in the 1970s and 1980s and closed her career with 18 Grand Slam titles, the same number as her great on-court rival, Martina Navratilova. “She’s an excellent front-runner. Once she gets going, and she’s winning, she has that confidence.
There is no sense of complacency with Swiatek. Nor does she — outwardly, anyway — get too down after a poor match. No victory — or loss, for that matter — seems to linger with her for too long. It’s simply on to the next one.
As for what sort of success Swiatek might have as the years go by, “On the long term, it’s hard to predict. The tour is long. Players have injuries, etc., etc., so I don’t want to guess what is going to happen,” Azarenka said. “But at the moment, she definitely fully deserves to be No. 1, with the way she’s playing.”
