No. 1-ranked Iga Swiatek fends off Ons Jabeur to win US Open title

Iga Swiatek wins the US Open! World No. 1 downs Ons Jabeur in straight sets to send Arthur Ashe court wild and secure her third Grand Slam women’s singles title – and first in New oYork

In a somewhat jumbled up top ten she is clearly the standout performer, although she was pushed hard by the powerful Tunisian. Twice she has come close to a watershed moment for women’s sport in her geographic region and both times, as at Wimbledon, she has fallen short.

Her last stand was a tiebreak that contained a catalogue of nervy errors. Jabeur took a first point lead before over-pressing on groundstrokes to go 2-4 down. Swiatek responded with groundstroke errors of her own, but then regained control at 4-4 and clinched the victory when her opponent drove a forehand long at 6-5.

There was probably marginally less pre-match expectation as there had been on this corresponding day a year ago, when two teenagers so captured New York’s imagination.

Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez were the two protagonists, coming in as the world number 150 and 77 respectively, compared to the Nos 1 and 2 slugging it out here on Saturday night.