“I respect her for how much class she has” Iga Swiatek talks of following Ash Barty’s example in leading the Tour as World No. 1
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Ash Barty and Iga Swiatek
World No. 1 Iga Swiatek is currently into her 8th week as the Tour ranking leader having officially become the top-ranked player on 4th April 2022. While there was never a doubt that the Pole will climb to the top of the rankings, the opportunity came up pretty quickly with the sudden retirement of 3-time Grand Slam champion Ash Barty.
Barty announced her retirement on 23rd March 2022, a few weeks after having won the 2022 Australian Open. Barty, 25, believed that she had accomplished all of her goals in tennis and wanted to pursue other avenues hence made the decision to retire from tennis and requested immediate removal from the rankings. As the rankings couldn’t be updated as the Tour was busy with the 2022 Miami Open, it took Swiatek a couple of weeks to be officially named the top-ranked player with the title in Miami being the cherry on the top.
“Since becoming the world number one I haven’t felt the need to speak to more experienced players about how to deal with the added responsibilities. For now, I feel I have been doing fine but if I have some problems I would reach out to some players. I have the feeling I could get support from some of the players, but on the other hand, it is also tough asking your competitors that sort of thing.
“Ashleigh Barty, who I replaced as world number one when she retired in March, is the one who would honestly say what she feels, what she thinks and how she dealt with those things. Ash is also perfect to give advice because she isn’t my competitor anymore, of course! Ashleigh has always been really helpful and really supportive. I respect her for how much class she has, and I hope to carry myself as the world number one in the same way as she did,” said Barty speaking with Jonathan Jurejko for BBC.
Iga Swiatek currently leads the Tour with more than 2000 points
Having clinched five titles this season of which four were WTA-1000 events in Qatar, Indian Wells, Miami and Rome, Iga also won the WTA-500 event in Stuttgart taking her to 7061 points. Following her in the second place is Barbora Krejcikova who currently has 4911 points, a deficit of 2150 points between the two former French Open champions.
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Sarthak Shitole
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