Despite not being as dominant as American legend Serena Williams, Iga Swiatek has certainly been the most brilliant and consistent player in recent years. The Polish player is playing her best tennis on red clay, as shown by her excellent results at the French Open, but she is learning to adapt to all surfaces and is still very young.
Iga Swiatek
Iga Swiatek© Getty Images Sport – Dylan Buell
The world number 1 has played a huge 2024 French Open, proving to be much superior to its opponents on red clay. Iga did not shine particularly at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships and especially at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she was the main favourite to win the gold medal. Swiatek did not manage the pressure and nerves well, going out to the semi-finals and burst into tears in front of the reporters right after the match. Thanks to the help of his team, Iga Swiatek digested that disappointment and won a valuable bronze medal.
The Polish champion struggled a lot in Cincinnati last week, making many unforced errors in all her matches and risking elimination several times. Her run in Ohio was stopped in the semi-finals against Aryna Sabalenka, who has exploited her characteristics to get a major victory in view of the US Open. Iga will have to be 100% if she wants to win the title in New York, a not easy feat given the level shown by her opponents in recent weeks.
Iga can still improve
Iga Swiatek has been the iconic face of the WTA tour for several years, especially after the shocking retirement of Ash Barty. Iga Swiatek’s run at the Cincinnati Masters 1000 was abruptly interrupted in the semi-finals when the Polish tennis player faced a dominant version of Aryna Sabalenka, who crushed her rival with a double 6-3 and qualifying for the last act of the American tournament.
A revenge for the Belarusian, after two defeats on earth against the 23-year-old from Warsaw in the finals of Madrid and Rome. Despite the defeat, however, Swiatek firmly maintains the first position in the WTA ranking, reaching an important milestone that already delivers it into the elite of women’s tennis.
Iga Swiatek
Iga Swiatek© Getty Images Sport – Dylan Buell
The Polish tennis player started on Monday the 117th as the world number one, grabbing Justine Henin at eighth place in the overall ranking of women tenniswomen who stayed for the longest time in the WTA ranking. The next champion in the sights of the four-time slam champion is Ashleigh Barty, retired at 26 with 121 weeks from world number one. Further away are Monica Seles (178) and Martina Hingis (208). Leading this special ranking is a seemingly unreachable Steffi Graf (377), followed by Martina Navratilova (332), Serena Williams (319) and Chris Evert (260).
Swiatek, who has been in the top of the WTA rankings for 41 consecutive weeks, has an advantage of over 2000 points from the first ranked rival, Aryna Sabalenka, and almost 4000 points from Coco Gauff. The impression is that, except for sudden stops of the Polish or important threads of her direct opponents, the first place in the ranking will remain firmly in his hands for many weeks.
Swiatek is very introverted
Despite having achieved many victories during her young career, Iga has always the same personality and not being in the center of attention. “I have reached the level where I know that tennis is not played for the ranking. And when I go out on the court, I am able to focus on improving my strokes, and treat the ranking points only as the result of this work. Of course, it is easier to do this when you are at the top, because it is probably a bit different when you are in trouble, and the result of each tournament determines, for example, the budget for coaches and trips to the next tournaments. I am aware that I am in a privileged position,” Swiatek said in a recent interview.
Iga Swiatek
Iga Swiatek© Getty Images Sport – Dylan Buell
The Polish champion also drew a parallel with Spaniard ace Carlitos Alcaraz: “Carlos Alcaraz has a completely different personality than me, he travels to tournaments with many people, enjoys life, has fun and celebrates successes in a completely different way. For me, it’s more important to have peace around me, take care of simple pleasures and spend time with my loved ones. I’m an introvert, and if I did more, I would feel very tired.”
Swiatek has become a more and more complete player over the years and has not yet reached her best level. The Polish star always said that 22-time Grand Slam champion Rafa Nadal is her greatest idol and that she is inspired by him on and off the tennis court.