Swiatek shining
You probably read about all the achievements of 19-year-old Iga Swiatek in the last 14 days. Fortunately for us, she lost her first two sets at Roland Garros yesterday and hereby her doubles semifinal with Nicole Melichar against Alexa Guarachi and Desirae Krawczyk. Today, the biggest match of her young career is taking place as she faces Sofia Kenin in her first Grand Slam final.
As mentioned before, Swiatek is yet to lose a set in the singles competition and I don't get around listing the scores of her 12 sets played so far: 6-1 6-2 6-1 6-4 6-3 6-2 6-1 6-2 6-3 6-1 6-2 6-1. Her most impressive win by far came in the fourth round against #1 seed and heavy tournament favorite Simona Halep. However, it might be even more remarkable how she backed this win up. Swiatek showed some cold blooded mentality in her quarterfinal and semifinal wins over Martina Trevisan and Nadia Podoroska. It's not natural a player of her age is able to back up the biggest win of her career in such convincing fashion and a lot of young players crumble to the pressure of being the favorite in their next match after such a performance.
Can Kenin keep it close?
I'm not the only one that's impressed by the Pole and while the whole tennis world is talking about her right now, the market has also caught up on her. If you only went by the ranking on which both finalists entered the French Open, you would think the odds are somewhat ridiculous. So the #4 seed is the underdog at around +150 while the world #54 is currently priced -167 or lower. To casuals, this seems bizarre and even though I do think Swiatek should be slightly favored, it might be worth looking into the matchup a little closer.
Sofia Kenin already appeared at the biggest stage of them all when she won the Australian Open earlier this year. The American is only 21 years of age herself and also possesses this winning mentality. She thrives in the later stages of tournaments when she just turns into a wall and forces her opponents to hit winners on decisive points. Even though she's not a clay court specialist per se, her gritty play makes it so tough to beat her on any surface. So I'm not expecting Swiatek to crack under the pressure, but Kenin to get out there and offer a big fight once again. She's been on this stage before and also knows how to cope with an early deficit as she was down a set against Muguruza in the Australian Open final as well.
While I do think Swiatek can win her first Grand Slam here in Paris, Kenin's odds are a bit too long in my opinion. Therefore, I pick her to win and the match to go over 2.5 sets at +150 each.
