Who is Iga Swiatek, the 19-year-old Polish teenager who won French Open 2020?

Iga Swiatek created history on Saturday as she became the first women player from Poland to win a Tennis Grand Slam title. At the age of 19, Iga Swiatek defeated Sofia Kenin of the USA 6-4, 6-1 in the final to join an elite list of players who have won the French Open. Iga Swiatek joined Chris Evert, Evon Goolagong, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Steffi Graf, and Monica Seles who have won the French Open before they turned 20. 

As a junior, she has had success in the French Open prior to her entering the top flight of women’s tennis. Swiatek was the 2018 French Open girls' doubles champion alongside Caty McNally and the 2018 Wimbledon girls' singles champion. She also led Poland to the Junior Fed Cup crown in 2016 and won a gold medal for Poland at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics together with Slovenian Kaja Juvan. Swiatek began playing regularly on the WTA Tour in 2019. She was able to break into the top 50 after her first appearance in a WTA final and a fourth-round appearance at the French Open, where she was defeated by Simona Halep.

Early career

Iga Swiatek was born on May 31, 2001, in Warsaw to a family of sporting personalities. Her father, Tomasz Swiatek is a rower who competed in the men's quadruple sculls event at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Her sister Agata, initially started out in swimming, but switched to tennis after she had issues with swimming. Iga followed Agata into tennis because she wanted to beat her sister and also because she wanted to be more like her. Agata briefly competed on the ITF Junior Circuit in 2013 at about 15 years old but has since largely stopped playing due to injury troubles.

In 2018, Swiatek won the Wimbledon girls’ singles title without dropping a set. In the same year, she participated in the Summer Youth Olympic Games. Although she lost in the quarterfinals in singles to Clara Burel, she partnered with Slovenian Kaja Juvan to win the gold medal in doubles.

In 2019, during the Canadian Open which was one of the top tournaments in the WTA circuit, she defeated Caroline Wozniacki but lost to Naomi Osaka. In the US Open, she reached the third round before losing to Victoria Azarenka. In the French Open, her biggest win was over World No.2 Simona Halep and on Saturday, she took the giant leap to success by winning the French Open and creating history for Poland.