Iga Swiatek: World No 1’s French Open record puts tennis future in her hands

Iga Swiatek doesn’t win every tennis tournament she plays — but she wins the ones she wins in a way that makes nearly everyone watching her wonder how she ever loses.

There are plenty of verbs to describe what Swiatek did to the spirited but ultimately overmatched Jasmine Paolini of Italy, Overwhelmed. Decimated. Crushed.

They all sound kind of mean, because they have nothing to do with Paolini, the Italian making her first Grand Slam final at 28. She is in fine but frustrated company with the ranks of players who have been vanquished with minimum fuss since Swiatek started a run of domination at the French Open that has already garnered comparisons to the early years of Rafael Nadal. No one had seen someone play the modern version — his version, now her version — of tennis on clay.