The 2022 US Open ended this past weekend at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, Queens, having set the record for the most fans to attend the event in its history.
A total of 776,120 fans packed the stands in the various stadiums at the complex, surpassing the previous high of 737, 872 set in 2019. There were many emotional moments. Serena Williams, the GOAT (greatest of all time) of women’s tennis, played her last competitive match, losing in the third round to Ajla Tomljanovi in a three-set thriller—7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-1—as the passionate crowd that filled Arthur Ashe Stadium showered the 23-time grand slam singles champion with adulation.
By the end of the women’s draw, Iga Swiatek from Poland, the No. 1 ranked female player in the world, solidified her standing with a 6-2, 7-6 (5) victory over world No. 5 ranked Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, to capture her first win at the US Open and becoming the first Polish woman to ever win the tournament.
The 21-year-old Swiatek is also the first woman to win two grand slam singles titles in the same year since Angelique Kerber in 2016. Swiatek made her professional debut in 2016. She is a three-time major singles champion, having previously won the 2020 and 2022 French Open.
“For sure this tournament was challenging,” she said in an interview on the court after defeating the 28-year-old Jabeur. “It’s New York, it’s so loud, it’s crazy, so many temptations in the city…I’m so proud that I could handle it mentally.”
Swiatek took home a winner’s check for $2.6 million. Jabeur received $1.3 million as the runner-up. She is the only native African and Arab woman to reach the US Open finals. “Definitely I’m not someone that’s going to give up,” she said. “I am sure I will be back in the final again.”
The women’s doubles final was won by Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, both from Czech Republic, who defeated Americans Cathy McNally and Taylor Townsend 3-6,7-5, 6-1.