It’s not the most glamorous women’s finals matchup of all time, but the two most deserving players have made it to Saturday at the U.S. Open.
Arthur Ashe Stadium will be decked out with its share of red and white Polish flags waving at 4 p.m., when the No. 1 seed, Iga Swiatek of Poland, faces the 2022 Wimbledon finalist, No. 5 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia.
Neither of them is a household name in America, but in this spectacularly deep women’s game, they have weaved the finest years.
And considering she’s just 21, Swiatek is poised to become the next dominant player amid the women’s revolving door of champions.
Swiatek posted a 37-match winning streak earlier this year and won her second French Open title in May, after which she then suffered a dip. Plus, as No. 1 seed, she was vastly overshadowed by Serena Williams’ farewell, which Swiatek acknowledged as making for “less pressure’’ on her.
Though not in her best form, she quietly marched through the Open draw until she was nearly was upended Thursday in the semifinals. Trailing 4-2, she had to reel off four straight games in the third set to outlast Aryna Sabalenka.
Ons Jabeur and Iga Swiatek USA TODAY Sports; N.Y. Post: Anne WermeilSwiatek is best on clay. Tennis analyst Mary Carillo has pointed out her loping forehand isn’t quite as devastating on fast hardcourts.
“No woman is more comfortable on clay than Iga,’’ Carillo said. “It plays to all of her considerable strengths, especially her forehand that has Nadalian heft. But her extreme grip makes it harder for her to get up and over the shot on a fast hardcourt. When your go-to shot is difficult to produce on grass or hardcourt, you can’t lean up against it.
“Iga has not found her best form, but is still in the championship match. The question becomes should that give her reason to believe or reason to doubt.’’
No women’s player has captured two majors in a year since 2016, when Angelique Kerber won the Australian Open and U.S. Open. Swiatek can match that accomplishment if she takes out Jabeur.
“I’m pretty happy that on this tournament, I just was kind of fresh mentally,’’ Swiatek said. “I’m pretty happy that even though maybe I wasn’t feeling 100 percent perfectly from the beginning of the tournament, I was still able to get better and better and play really solid game. Like on clay, I feel just perfect. But winning when I’m not feeling perfectly, it’s the best kind of thing.’’
Jabeur, the 28-year-old who became the first African woman to make the U.S. Open finals in the Open Era, whipped the tour’s hottest player, Caroline Garcia, in a 6-1, 6-3 semifinal.
Jabeur has her finals loss to Elena Rybakina as an experience to learn from.
She didn’t get any rankings points for her All-England Club march because those points were not awarded for Wimbledon after the banning of Russians and Belarusians from that tournament. But Jabeur will rise to No. 2 after this Open.
“It feels more real, to be honest with you just to be in the finals again,’’ Jabeur said. “At Wimbledon I was kind of just living the dream, and I couldn’t believe it. now just I hope I’m getting used to it and, maybe I know what to do in the finals.’’







