French Open order of play Day 14: When is the women’s final between Iga Swiatek and Jasmine Paolini? How to watch? – Eurosport

The penultimate day of the 2024 French Open will be headlined by the women’s singles final between Iga Swiatek and Jasmine Paolini.

World No. 1 Swiatek will bidding to win the French Open title for the fourth time in the last five years.

Paolini, the 12th seed, is appearing in her first Grand Slam final, having beaten unseeded teenager Mirra Andreeva in the semi-finals.

The men’s doubles final, seeing Marcelo Arevalo and Mate Pavic face Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori will also take place on Saturday.

On paper Swiatek looks an overwhelming favourite to win the final.

The world No. 1 has won 20 consecutive matches at the French Open, is on an 18-match winning streak this season, and hasn’t lost to a player ranked outside the top 10 on clay in nearly two years.

Paolini is playing her first Grand Slam final and hasn’t won more than three games in her previous two meetings against Swiatek.

But Paolini has come a long way since losing to Swiatek 6-3 6-0 the last time they met at the 2022 US Open.

“I started to play better and better, to play better against also top players because before I was, like, 6-1, 6-1 or 6-2, 6-1 and no match, but then I started to be there. I lost all the matches, more or less, against the top players, but I was getting closer and closer, you know. That helped me with the confidence.

“Now with more matches in my pocket I feel more confidence in my game, in myself. So, as I said many times, I step on court believing that I can win those matches, and that’s I think the main click that I did then, you know.”

Even if her confidence is sky-high, beating Swiatek in the French Open final looks an enormous challenge for Paolini.

So dominant has Swiatek become at Roland-Garros, where she has a 34-2 record, that she is now being mentioned alongside 14-time winner Rafael Nadal.

“I mean, that’s obviously really nice for me. I would never expect anybody to compare me to Rafa because for me he’s above everybody, and he’s a total legend.”

• Women’s wheelchair singles final: Diede De Groot (1) v Zhenzhen Zhu

• Women’s singles final: Iga Swiatek (1) v Jasmine Paolini (12)
• Men’s doubles final: Marcelo Arevalo & Mate Pavic (9) v Simone Bolelli & Andrea Vavassori (11)