After a wet and windy start, the first week of the French Open threatened to fizzle out. Players complained of the cold, grumbled over inhospitable living conditions, and laboured out on the heavy courts with their slow balls, in front of a drastically curtailed number of fans. Paris was in the throes of a second wave of coronavirus.
At least the US Open served as something of a novelty, with a deserted Flushing Meadows providing the backdrop as Grand Slam tennis made its comeback. On the other hand even the return of Rafael Nadal, Simona Halep, and Elina Svitolina, who skipped New York for health reasons, could not mask the lack of frivolity in autumnal France. Then on Wednesday, Serena Williams withdrew from her second-round match citing an Achilles injury, taking with her one of the tournament’s major talking points as she strives to tie up Margaret Court on twenty-four Grand Slams.
Other seeds fell by the wayside, notably number two Karolína Plíšková and number four Daniil Medvedev. But Plíšková lost out to Jeļena Ostapenko, French Open champion in 2017 when Plíšková reached the semi-finals, while Medvedev has never reached beyond the first round at Roland Garros.
The likely contenders – Nadal looking for an unprecedented thirteenth French Open title, world number one Novak Djokovic seeking to close the Grand Slam gap, victor in 2018 Simona Halep, and Dominic Thiem, the newly-crowned US Open champion who has twice finished runner-up in France – progressed flawlessly. Home favourite Gaël Monfils and US Open finalist Victoria Azarenka went out.
Then on Friday the clouds lifted and Court Philippe Chatrier, still limited to just 1,000 spectators, seemed to grow in magnitude as the volume turned up a notch. In the match of the tournament so far, France’s own Caroline Garcia came back from a first-set thrashing to beat Elise Mertens 1-6, 6-4, 7-5, buoyed then hauled over the line by a rapturous smattering of locals.
A stormy first week also saw an epic five-setter between Andrey Rublev and Sam Querrey, while at the end of a bad-tempered encounter with the feisty Sara Errani, a victorious Kiki Bertens left the court sobbing in a wheelchair. The French Open picked up the pace over the weekend, as Italian newcomer Jannik Sinner blasted past a sickly Alexander Zverev, while the talented Polish teenager Iga Świątek saw off the top-seeded Halep in straight sets. Danielle Collins battled past former champion Garbiñe Muguruza, and French wild card Hugo Gaston gave Thiem a scare.
Halep and Muguruza were the last women in the draw with French Open final experience. That left the likes of Sofia Kenin and Petra Kvitová, eager to add to their Grand Slam titles, while Świątek and Svitolina led the charge of players hoping to break through.
Kenin ended home interest in the singles with a fourth-round victory over France’s Fiona Ferro, before besting her American compatriot Danielle Collins in three sets. Kvitová and Świątek progressed to the semi-final stage without dropping a set, but Svitolina tumbled in the quarters to Argentine qualifier Nadia Podoroska, making the semis a battle of the haves and have-nots.
Kenin, who won her maiden Grand Slam at the Australian Open at the start of 2020, showed steel and focus as she battled past two-time Wimbledon champion Kvitová 6-4, 7-5. In their first Grand Slam semi-final, Świątek made short work of the surprise package from Argentina, thrashing Podoroska 6-2, 6-1.
So the women’s final bore a youthful complexion, with Świątek just nineteen and Kenin twenty-one years old, another encouraging sign for the sport with Naomi Osaka, Bianca Andreescu, Amanda Anisimova, and Coco Gauff part of a vibrant new generation. From the composure and confidence of her semi-final performance, on this occasion Kenin struggled up against the depth and versatility of Świątek, who became the first Polish player to win a Grand Slam singles title, taking the French Open 6-4, 6-1.
Months out of high school, Świątek possesses an all-court game with strength and exceptional touch, but perhaps most of all the reach and consistency to excel on the slow clay of Roland Garros, her favourite surface. As a first-time champion, her victory in France was remarkably dominant, as over the course of two weeks she failed to lose a single set or more than five games per match.
When Dominic Thiem bowed out in the quarter-finals versus Diego Schwartzman, it seemed that nothing would stop a third French Open final meeting between world number one Novak Djokovic and world number two Rafa Nadal. Thiem, runner-up for the past two years in Paris, eventually succumbed to Schwartzman at the end of five hours and five sets, citing fatigue following his successful travails at the US Open.
Nadal, in a galaxy of his own as he chased his thirteenth French Open title, saw off the challenge of spunky Italian youngster Jannik Sinner in the quarters, and maintained the upper hand against Schwartzman through straight sets. Stefanos Tsitsipas promised a sterner test for Djokovic in the other semi-final, after running through Grigor Dimitrov and Andrey Rublev. Victorious at last year’s ATP Finals, a semi-final appearance for Tsitsipas matched his best ever showing at a Grand Slam, and he proved his mettle after stumbling in the early going, though it was Djokovic who turned on the burners in the decisive fifth set.
Nadal seemed to have overcome the early complaints of slow balls and chilly temperatures, but even from within his own camp there were concerns that the heavy conditions would hinder his usual clay court kick. No worries, for in a surprisingly lopsided final, it was Nadal who prevailed 6-0, 6-2, 7-5. An implausible thirteenth title at Roland Garros also saw Nadal join Roger Federer on twenty Grand Slams, a lofty but perilous precipice. With Djokovic lagging behind on seventeen major titles, the two outstanding figures in modern men’s tennis revelled in each other’s company, at least for now.
