143 video games.
120 wins.
3 Grand Slams.
39 bagels.
100 weeks as primary on the earth — and extra to return.
Only 22 years previous, Iga Swiatek is barely the ninth participant to succeed in this century since computerized rankings had been launched in 1975. In two stints, one for 75 weeks and one for 25 weeks, she cemented her place as a dominant power in girls’s tennis. She has risen by means of the sector together with her spectacular efficiency since her full WTA Tour debut in Auckland on December 31, 2018.
She might be assured of extending her lead on the high of the ladies’s recreation when Swiatek opens subsequent month on the French Open, a event she has gained in three of the previous 4 years.
Here, The Athletic analyzes key moments from Swiatek’s time on the high and considers whether or not somebody may finish her reign anytime quickly.
Swiatek’s 100 weeks as world primary started in April 2022 after successful the Miami Open. Her substitute, Ashleigh Barty, gained the Australian Open in January of that yr and had introduced her retirement a number of weeks earlier. At the time, she held a lead of greater than 2,000 factors over Swiatek within the rankings. Swiatek gained the 2020 French Open as an unseeded world No. 54, and whereas she wasn’t with out the No. 1 spot, Barty’s exit gave her an uncommon path to the highest of the game. .
But if there have been any doubts about Swiatek’s standing as one of the best participant on the earth, she erased them.
Swiatek took 17 wins within the rankings and envisioned this as a definitive image of her unbelievable dominance on tour. After shedding to Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko in Dubai in February 2022, Swiatek went on an unbelievable 37-match successful streak, the longest by a WTA participant within the twenty first century.
The sequence included Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome and her second French Open title. Although this run has secured her place as a participant who can get by means of her summer time, it doesn’t cease Swiatek from transferring away from her favourite clay courts to finish her first Grand Slam and compete on the US Open in September 2022. It was a giant second once we gained.
In addition to Indian Wells and Miami’s coveted out of doors laborious courts, the Sunshine Double, she confirmed her sturdiness on all surfaces, though grass stays harder. She misplaced to France’s Alyse Cornet at Wimbledon that yr, which marked the top of her yr. Her wonderful run.
During the successful streak, Swiatek was compelled to a few units simply seven instances, successful 16 units 6-0 and 12 units 6-1. Of her 143 matches as world primary, she bageled her opponents in 36 of them (simply over 1 / 4) and gained 39 units 6-0.
Although he didn’t win the 2022 WTA Finals in November of the identical yr, Swiatek completed the yr as world #1 with a win-loss ratio of 67-9. She was so dominant that she recorded the second-highest annual rating level complete in WTA historical past, behind solely Serena Williams in 2013.
Her first stint ended with a fourth-round loss to arch-rival Ostapenko on the 2023 US Open (0-4 head-to-head report). Much to her dismay, Swiatek nonetheless had the third-longest streak for a first-time world No. 1 within the Open period at 75 weeks.
It did not take Swiatek lengthy to rebound and take again the highest spot from Aryna Sabalenka, with a usually dominant win on the WTA Finals in November 2023. Swiatek defeated Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-0 within the closing after which world primary Sabalenka 6-3, 6-2 within the semi-final. In complete, Swiatek dropped 20 video games all through the event (a mean of 4 video games per recreation), a report for the reason that introduction of the round-robin format for the finals 20 years in the past.
Swiatek beat Maria Sakkari on the Australian Open in January to win Indian Wells and has remained world No. 1 ever since, regardless of shedding within the third spherical. She presently holds a really wholesome lead over No. 2 Sabalenka, together with her factors distinction at round 3,000 factors. The French Open might be key on this regard, with Swiatek defending the two,000 factors she earned final yr when she gained her third Roland Garros title (Sabarenka reached the semi-finals). World No. 3 Coco Gauff is about 600 factors behind Sabalenka and is a French Open quarterfinalist final yr, so she has fewer factors to defend in a event the place she is a former runner-up.
Swiatek has constructed a large lead on the high of the rankings (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
even deeper
Swiatek is on high of the world once more – and now she plans to remain there.
For now, Swiatek stays a must-beat participant.
“Next” was the hashtag Swiatek used on Monday in a social media put up about his 100 weeks at world No. 1. That has all the time been her angle, and past her greater targets, Swiatek’s fast focus is on the Madrid Open, the place this match started. week.
Who would guess that this could be the beginning of one other 100 weeks on the high? After all, she has some massive names to nab.
(Top photograph: Tim Clayton/Corbis by way of Getty Images)