“I got used to losing” Sunshine Double winner Iga Swiatek feels ‘strange’ on clinching hattrick of WTA-1000 titles
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Iga Swiatek with her trophies won in Qatar, Indian Wells and Miami
A day away from becoming the World No. 1, Iga Swiatek made sure she ascended to the top of the WTA rankings with a title to her name. Into the finals of the 2022 Miami Open and being up against former World No. 1 and 4-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka, Swiatek won the finals 6-4, 6-0 to win her 17th consecutive match.
The 17-match winning streak saw Iga win the Qatar Open in Doha, the Indian Wells Open and the Miami Open to win 3 consecutive WTA-1000 titles and become the first-ever woman to win the first three WTA-1000 titles of the season. The win in Miami was Iga’s 6th title of her career and the Pole is yet to celebrate her 21st birthday.
After shocking the world with her title run at the 2020 French Open, Iga had a difficult time on the Tour in the 2021 season with greater expectations from the then 19-year old teenager. She ended the 2021 season with only two titles, one in Adelaide at the start of the season and then won the 2021 Italian Open to win her first WTA-1000 title of the season.
Having already won 3 big titles already, Iga talked about how she finds it hard to believe that she has won a hattrick of titles after a difficult 2021 season. “It’s fun. I am very satisfied and fulfilled. Very proud of myself. I feel like I have to celebrate because I don’t know how long I’m going to last this series. It’s quite strange because I got used to losing. I accepted that in tennis, I was going to lose more tournaments than I was going to win, so it’s quite bizarre,” said Iga after her win in Miami as reported by Welovetennis.
Iga Swiatek is now the youngest woman to win the Sunshine Double
Sunshine Double, the name given to the Indian Wells and Miami Open tournaments are the 1000-category events on both ATP and WTA Tour and are two of the most important tournaments. With the win in Miami, the Pole broke Kim Clijsters‘s record with the Belgian completing it at the age of 21 in 2005.
The only players to complete the Sunshine Double before Iga are Jim Courier (1991) and Michael Chang (1992) who were both 20-year olds but a few months older than the age Iga achieved it at. It is just another sleep for Swiatek as World No. 2 as she will be the new World No. 1 on 4th April when the rankings are updated on Monday becoming the first Polish player to achieve the feat.
Also Read: Naomi Osaka sets sights on Iga Swiatek’s ‘No.1 ranking’ after resurgent run at the Miami Open
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