It is finals day at the Foro Italico as World No. 1 and defending champion Iga Swiatek squares off against Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur in the WTA Rome final. After a frenetic week in Italy’s capital, this seems like a perfectly appropriate matchup. Swiatek, the WTA’s in-form player, is setting the pace in the title count. She is looking to win her fifth trophy of the season, while Jabeur pursues a second in as many weeks. Who will prevail?
WTA Rome Final Prediction
Iga Swiatek vs Ons Jabeur
Head-to-head: Jabeur 2-1 Swiatek
Who is stopping Iga Swiatek? That is the burning question on everyone’s mind heading into the WTA Rome final on Sunday. The Polish star matched Serena William’s 27-match winning streak (from 2014 WTA Finals through Madrid 2015) following her 6-2 6-1 win over Aryna Sabalenka. And astonishingly, she has now won 40 of her last 41 sets on the WTA Tour – the only blot in her copybook being the set she dropped against Ludmilla Samsonova in the Stuttgart semifinals last month.
Her next opponent Ons Jabeur has battled her way into the championship match. The Tunisian trailblazer stared down the barrel for the second day in a row but refused to yield. Down a match point against Daria Kasatkina in Saturday’s semifinal, she produced a stunning forehand winner that brushed the outside of the line to save it. And a few moments later, she delivered one of her trademark dropshots to break back. The Russian did not recover as Jabeur rattled the final two games to win 6-4 1-6 7-5.
Swiatek is looking fairly comfortable with the mantle of being the top-ranked player in the post-Ashleigh Barty era. With more expectations and added pressure, she has taken great pride in that. The 20-year-old has steamrolled her way into the final without dropping a set. Jabeur, in contrast, has been pushed to her absolute limit. She needed to dig deep to grind out an incredible quarterfinal win over Maria Sakkari and then Kasatkina, clocking almost eight hours on her way to the final. It would be a supreme way to round off the fortnight for Jabeur by bagging her second WTA 1000 title. In as much as her confidence remains unshakable, there is a greater disparity in energy levels between the two players. The World No. 1 should be in a prime position to retain her Italian Open crown.
Prediction: Swiatek in 2
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