Aryna Sabalenka puts an end to the Parisian reign of Iga Swiatek – Liberation

The queen fell. IGA SwiTEK lost in Roland-Garros, and no one had seen that for four years. Another era, in tennis. The one who had already abandoned her throne throne of the circuit in the fall of 2024 is now deprived of « her » tournament, the one where every spring, she came to shine, as she had no opponent capable of having her wobble on clay. It was until Thursday, and his executioner is none other than the one who picked up the place of the world number one, Aryna Sabalenka. Who other than the Bélarusse compressor roller to stem (7-6, 4-6, 6-0) the stunning series of 26 consecutive victories of the Polish on the Parisian ocher?

Such a feat had to be done in hardness, by drawing far, with panache, we predicted everywhere. In the same way that the shock was to be that of the fortnight. The kind of match that must feed the narrative of a rivalry to be one of the most epic in the future, between two boss which it is said to have become a little friends this year. Possible, but not on the court, where this Thursday everything was harsh, rough, tense. Laborious, often. Without giving birth to a mouse, the confrontation did not have the expected sparkle either.

However, no winding and quarter conditions to justify approximations in strikes or investments. We played under closed roof. Simply a lot of effervescence in the heads. Proof of the extreme tension around this half: eleven breaks were identified on the first 14 games. A chopped part, with two protagonists who did not play at the same time. At least not all the time.

Failing to have highlighted the best of the two players, this Parisian chapter had the merit of being inventive in the scenario. No one had yet imagined such paralyzed swiatek. The Polish, four times winner here, whose emotional management we praise when the problems are most serious, was unrecognizable when it counted, in contrast to her laps before. Like this execrable and lost tie-break of the first set, where his racket gave the impression of an old steel rifle, the Warsovian sprinkling all over the court.

A game of play almost shakes up all the acquired convictions. At 4-1 In his favor in the first round, Sabalenka believes to pass an Ace which should allow him to mark a fifth game. The public acclaimed, but the chair referee, the Frenchman Kader Nouni, intervenes at the microphone. The ball is « let ». False joy for Sabalenka, who loses her putting into play in stride. Less than a quarter of an hour later, the main painting of the central displayed 5-4 Swiatek. His feverish wrist was heated suddenly, and the ex-numéro one started taking control of the exchange, dictating the tempo behind his line by whisking the ball of the right, alternating right-left to use his opponent.

But in this perfectly illegible copy, where each returned from a desperate situation, taking up the orders when we expected the least, Sabalenka pressed while she was on the verge of letting go. Swiatek seemed to sucked in the rhythm imposed by his opponent, whose powerful strikes take by the throat. And the Polish has long been limited to accepting an showdown lost in advance, wanting to fold the exchange in two strokes of racket, instead of building by varying. When she changed brackets, that is to say in the second act, Sabalenka struggled. Without outclassing the Belarusian, Swiatek did the necessary. She immediately took the service of her opponent, then kept hers all along, maneuvering in a more 2024 version.

The Chatrier spans then believed to attend yet another come-back of the title holder of the title. But since her title gleaned here in 2024, the last she won, the Polish is entangled in a permanent doubt. The 2025 version swiatek does not have this consistency in the precision that characterized it before. Quite the opposite of Sabalenka, who began in his strategy, consisting in sending wood without discontinuing, until dead follows. That of Swiatek took place after 2:22 am, after a final disappointing, one-way round (6-0).

For Sabalenka, who had had the skin of his rival on earth only once, in Madrid in 2023, this is a real feat. For the coronation to be total, it still has to finish the job on Saturday. At 27, she will play her first Roland-Garros final. Either against an « old » knowledge, Coco Gauff, or against the chief’s surprise, the Frenchwoman Loïs Boisson. Enticing, whatever happens.