“I need to work harder to keep this streak” Iga Swiatek wins 7th straight final on a record-breaking night at the Stuttgart Open
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Iga Swiatek
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek presented yet another proof of why she is the top-ranked player on the WTA Tour with her fourth consecutive title of the season. Up against World No. 4 Aryna Sabalenka, Swiatek won the finals 6-2, 6-2 in 1 hour and 24 minutes to win the 2022 Stuttgart Open while making her tournament debut.
Sabalenka had reached the finals of the tournament last year as well but lost to the then World No. 1 Ash Barty and Swiatek made sure it remains a similar story today as well. Swiatek did not lose her service throughout the finals and in another dominating display in a Tour match, she took down the Belarusian who played her first final of the season having had a poor start to her season with early exits in majority of her tournament appearances.
Swiatek dropped just 1 set throughout the tournament which came in the semi-finals when Liudmila Samsonova broke Iga’s streak of 28 consecutive set wins as she won the very first set. Iga however rallied back to win the match with the match timer going past the 3 hours mark during a nervy semi-final. Iga however has now restarted her straight-set win streak.
The win also marked Iga’s 23rd straight victory which takes her on level with Naomi Osaka who also won 23 straight matches in 2020-21. In the list led by Serena Williams for players with the most consecutive wins since 2000, Iga still needs 13 wins to overtake Serena who is at the top with 35 wins to her name with the feat achieved in 2000.
“It’s pretty surreal, honestly (being on the list for consecutive wins). A few years ago I wouldn’t even think about being in this kind of group. For sure right now I need to work harder to keep this streak, but I’m just going to take it match by match, and I’m super proud of myself and really satisfied. These are the kind of players who were role models when I was growing up. I worked hard this week to adjust properly and to play my best tennis on this surface.
“I’m pretty proud of myself and pretty proud of my team because basically after yesterday’s match, it wasn’t easy to reset physically and mentally and be ready for today,” said Iga after her win in the finals as she takes 500 ranking points from the tournament along with a brand new Porsche that she can surely drive having received her driving license a few weeks back.
Iga Swiatek takes a hefty lead in WTA rankings
With her 30th win of the season in her 33rd match, Swiatek is now cruising in the WTA rankings as well as in the race for the Year-End Championships. With only 6 tournaments, Iga has 3920 points to her name in the race for the WTA Finals with Maria Sakkari in second place with 1610 points. In the rankings, Iga sits at the top with 7181 points while Paula Badosa will rise to the second spot with a total of 5045 points.
Iga will next be seen at the 2022 Madrid Open, the first WTA-1000 clay event of the season and having won all three WTA-1000 tournaments of the season, she will be eyeing a fourth. While it certainly won’t be easy as her game was exposed by Samsonova in the semi-finals, for the in-form Iga it will be a great challenge to prove herself once again.
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Sarthak Shitole
(3462 Articles Published)