The 2025 French Open is underway, where Iga Swiatek is in the hunt for her fourth consecutive Roland Garros title and fifth overall.
Swiatek has been dominant on the red clay in Paris, but how do her efforts stack up against the most dominant French Open performances ever?
(Sneak preview: She’s on the list, but she’s not No. 1).
Who were the five most dominant French Open women's champions?
Let’s say bonjour to the five most dominant women’s French championship runs of all time.
A few ground rules: Our main criteria are the fewest sets lost and the highest percentage of games won. We’re focusing on players who competed after World War II. No disrespect to the players who won in Paris before 1939, but the champions of that era generally faced competition that wasn’t, well, competitive.
No. 5 – Most of the players who won a French title before World War II
The French women’s champion won the title 10 times between 1925 and 1939 without dropping a set. It’s only happened 10 times since. By the numbers alone, Suzanne Lenglen’s romp to the 1926 title is the most dominant in French championship history. Lenglen won an unthinkable 60 of 64 games (93.8 percent) in her final appearance at the event, including seven 6-0 sets.
No. 4 – Evonne Goolagong, 1971
Goolagong made her first appearance at the French Open a memorable one. She won the title on her first try and did it without dropping a set – the first player in the Open era to accomplish the feat. Goolagong’s championship run included a 6-3, 6-0 quarterfinal win against the only seeded player she faced, hometown favorite Francoise Durr.
We deduct a few style points because Goolagong only had to play six matches to clear a 64-player field instead of the usual seven in a 128-player Grand Slam field.
No. 3 – Iga Swiatek
Swiatek’s first French Open title run is still her finest. It’s the only time (so far) out of her four Roland Garros championships that she won the event without dropping a set. She entered the event as a relatively unknown 19-year-old ranked outside the top 50 without a Tour-level title.
She blasted through the field, winning 75 percent of her games. Her tournament path included a 6-1, 6-2 wipeout of top-seeded former French champion Simona Halep in the fourth round and a 6-4, 6-1 victory against reigning Australian Open champion Sofia Kenin in the final.
No. 2 – Maureen Connolly, 1954
Connolly didn’t drop a set and defended the Roland Garros title she won on her way to a calendar-year Grand Slam in 1953. She won 81.1 percent of her games, the best percentage since World War II for a French champion who didn’t drop a set. However, we deduct a few style points since she only had to play five matches to emerge on top of a field of just 54.
No. 1 – Steffi Graf, 1988
Graf’s French title en route to her single-season “Golden Slam” is best remembered for her 6-0, 6-0, 32-minute demolition of Natasha Zvereva in the final – the only double-bagel in a major final in the Open era. Graf was just as dominant in the matches leading up to the final.
Graf swept through her seven matches without dropping a set and winning 80.9 percent of her games. That works out to an average match score of 6-2, 6-1 for the entire tournament. She won six sets by 6-0 scores.