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Iga ?wi?tek defeated Sofia Kenin in the final, 6-4, 6-1 to win her first Grand Slam tournament and capture the Women's Singles tennis title at the 2020 French Open.[1]
This was also ?wi?tek's first WTA singles title, making her the first player since Je?ena Ostapenko to win a major tournament as their maiden singles title.[2] Ranked world No. 54 in the WTA rankings, ?wi?tek became the lowest-ranked player to win the French Open since rankings were introduced in 1975, and the lowest-ranked player to win a Grand Slam title since Sloane Stephens won the 2017 US Open. ?wi?tek also became the first Polish player, male or female, to win a Grand Slam singles title. Winning a French Open singles title at 19 years and 4 months of age made ?wi?tek the youngest woman to do so since Monica Seles in 1992. ?wi?tek did not drop a set throughout the entire tournament, becoming the first player since Justine Henin in 2007 to win the French Open without dropping a set.[3] Additionally, she did not lose more than four games in any set and did not lose more than five games in any match. ?wi?tek dropped only 28 games throughout the tournament in total, the fewest since Steffi Graf dropped 20 games in 1988.,[4] meaning that this was the first French Open where both the men's and women's singles champions did not drop a set on their way to the title. ?wi?tek became the first female Polish player since Jadwiga J?drzejowska in 1939 to reach a French Open final, and the first to reach any Grand Slam final since Agnieszka Radwa?ska reached that stage of the 2012 Wimbledon Championships.[5]
Kenin was attempting to become the first player since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to win their first two Grand Slam singles titles in the same year, and the first female player to win more than one Grand Slam singles title in the same year since Kerber in 2016 as well, having won the 2020 Australian Open.[6]
Ashleigh Barty was the defending champion, but she chose not to participate due to safety concerns resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.[7][8] This marked the first time since 2008 that the defending French Open champion did not participate, and the second consecutive Grand Slam tournament where the defending champion did not participate, after Bianca Andreescu withdrew from the 2020 US Open.[9]
Simona Halep was in contention for the WTA No. 1 singles ranking,[10] but lost in the fourth round to ?wi?tek. As a result, Barty retained the No. 1 ranking and finished the year as the year-end No. 1 for the second consecutive year.[11][12] Halep's loss in the fourth round guaranteed a new French Open champion for the fifth consecutive year, and a maiden Grand Slam finalist from the top half of the draw.
Serena Williams was attempting to add to her Open Era record of 23 Grand Slam singles titles and equal Margaret Court's all-time record of 24 Grand Slam singles titles, but withdrew before her second round match due to a left Achilles injury she suffered earlier in September at the US Open.[13]
Only 13 of the 32 seeded players advanced to the third round, the fewest at any Grand Slam since Wimbledon expanded to 32 seeds in 2001. Only three seeded players advanced to the quarterfinals, the fewest since the 1978 Australian Open.[14] This was the first Grand Slam tournament since the 1999 Wimbledon Championships that two qualifiers, Nadia Podoroska and Martina Trevisan, reached the quarterfinals.[15] The semifinal match between ?wi?tek and Podoroska was also the first semifinal to be contested by two unseeded players at a Grand Slam since the 1983 French Open.[16]
Podoroska became the first qualifier in history to reach the semifinals of the French Open and the first to reach the semifinals at any Grand Slam tournament since Alexandra Stevenson achieved this feat at the aforementioned 1999 Wimbledon Championships.[17] She also became the first female Argentine player since Paola Suárez in 2004 to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam tournament in singles, and the lowest-ranked semifinalist (ranked No. 130) at any Grand Slam since Henin reached that stage of the 2010 Australian Open as an unranked player.[18]