Iga Swiatek has been crowned French Open champion for the third time in four years with a 6-2 6-7 6-4 victory over Karolina Muchova.

The world No.1 has established herself as the best player in the world in women’s tennis and has now registered four Grand Slam titles – three in Paris and one in New York – as she turns her attentions towards Wimbledon in July.

Swiatek, who recently turned 22, has become the youngest woman since Serena Williams to lift four major trophies.

She went into the Roland-Garros final having not dropped a single set in the whole tournament – and it looked like that was on course to continue as she dominated in the first set – before Muchova battled back to win the second.

But Swiatek got the job done in the decider despite an strong performance from her opponent Muchova, who has enjoyed a resurgence after injury problems and impressively knocked out Aryna Sabalenka, as she became only the third player ranked outside the top 40 to feature in the French Open final.

Swiatek got off to the perfect start with an early break and world No.43 Muchova missed a break-point opportunity as the Polish star ran into a 4-1 lead, before another break saw her take the first set 6-2 in front of the Philippe-Chatrier crowd.

Muchova was broken again early into the second set but the 26-year-old broke Swiatek back and held to make it 3-3. There was then a significant shift in momentum – as the Czech player registered another break – to give herself the opportunity to serve for the set and take the final to a decider.

Swiatek, though, registered her fourth break of the match to level it up at 5-5 and there was more drama as Muchova responded with an instant break – to give herself a second opportunity to serve for the set. Swiatek saved multiple set points but Muchova eventually came out on top to take the second set 7-5.

It was a huge psychological blow to Swiatek, who was broken in the first game of the third set and went 2-0 down, but she broke back to make it 2-2. It looked like Muchova was on course for a stunning victory as she registered another break but Swiatek broke her straight back as it went to 4-4, before she held serve and broke her opponent again to secure the title in Paris.

Muchova, meanwhile, will likely be upbeat about her runner-up finish at Roland-Garros – in what was her debut Grand Slam final – having only ever reached the third round in Paris before this year’s tournament.

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