Iga Swiatek becomes seventh unseeded women’s singles finalist at the French Open

For only the seventh time ever, there will be an unseeded French Open finalist in the women’s singles draw. On Thursday, Iga Swiatek of Poland defeated Argentinian qualifier Nadia Podoroska 6-2, 6-1 in the women’s semifinal of the 2020 French Open. She will now play American and Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin, the fourth seed, in the women’s final on Saturday. The other six women’s French Open unseeded finalists are Helen Gourlay of Australia (1971), Renata Tomanova of Czechoslovakia (1976), Florenta Mihai of Romania (1977), Mima Jausovec of Yugoslavia (1983), Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia (2017), and Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic (2019).

Swiatek has simply been phenomenal in the French Open to date. In her six matches so far in the tournament, she has not lost a set. In fact, Swiatek has only lost five games in a match twice.

After Swiatek beat Podoroska, she became only the second female Polish player ever to reach a women’s singles final at the French Open. The first was Jadwiga Jedrzejowska, who lost 6-3, 8-6 to Simone Mathieu of France way back in 1939. Kenin meanwhile reached the final by beating two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, 6-4, 7-5.

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On the men’s side, tennis fans are in a tasty treat. Here we have the top two players in the world meeting each other for the 56th time. Novak Djokovic of Serbia leads the head-to-head matchup against Rafael Nadal of Spain, 29-26. However, this will only be the third time they have faced each other in a French Open Final. Nadal won the two previous French Open finals. The first came in 2012, in a four set Nadal win by a score of 6-4, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5. The second came in 2014, also in four sets. Nadal lost the first set 6-3, before winning the next three sets, 7-5, 6-2, 6-4.

In the semifinals on Friday, Nadal, who is seeded second, beat the 12th ranked Diego Schwartzman of Argentina, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6. While Djokovic, the number one seed beat fifth-ranked Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, 6-3, 6-2, 5-7, 4-6, 6-1.

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