Iga Swiatek outlasts Karolina Muchova to win 3rd French Open - ESPN

PARIS — -- Iga Swiatek suddenly seemed lost in the French Open final. Her strokes were awry. Her confidence was gone. Her big early lead vanished, too.

She kept looking up into the stands, seeking guidance from her coach and her sports psychologist.

So much was amiss right up until she was two games from defeat against unseeded Karolina Muchova on Saturday. And then, when she needed to most, Swiatek transformed back into, well, Swiatek. The No. 1 player in women's tennis for more than a year. The defending champion at Roland Garros. Aggressive. Decisive. Full of clarity.

Swiatek overcame a second-set crisis and a third-set deficit to beat Muchova 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 and collect her third career championship at the French Open and fourth Grand Slam title.

The No. 1-ranked Swiatek raced to a 3-0 lead after just 10 minutes in Court Philippe Chatrier — taking 12 of the initial 15 points — and then was ahead 3-0 in the second set, too, before Muchova made things more intriguing.

With Swiatek looking out of sorts, unable to find the answers, Muchova grabbed five of six games on the way to pulling even at a set apiece. Muchova carried that momentum into the deciding set, going ahead by a break twice.

That's when Swiatek returned to her usual brand of crisp, clean tennis, scurrying around the red clay with sublime defense and finding just the occasions to try for a winner. She claimed the last three games of the match.

When it ended on a double-fault by Muchova, Swiatek dropped her racket, hunched forward and covered her face as she cried.

The 22-year-old from Poland has won the French Open twice in a row now, along with her 2020 title there and her triumph at the US Open last September. That makes Swiatek the youngest woman with four