Martina Navratilova believes Iga Swiatek will continue to dominate 2023 season as World No.1
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Iga Swiatek and Martina Navratilova
Professional tennis player Iga Swiatek earned the top spot in April 2022 in the WTA rankings and managed to keep it for the rest of the year. She won the 2022 French Open and the US Open titles and 6 other WTA singles titles. However, the most fantastic thing about her is that she did look almost invincible. In every match and every tournament, she looked amazing, and her hunger for winning kept on growing.
Most tennis legends and commentators believe that she would be able to continue her remarkable form in the 2023 season. Among them is former World No.1 Martina Navratilova. She visions the Polish player keeping her World No.1 ranking in 2023 as well.
“I do, I do. I don’t see anybody knocking her off — because she’s so consistent. She wins majors — and she’s consistent. Usually, it’s one or the other. She’s got them both going on at the same time. I think to see if she’s making any changes, adding to her game again. This past year, she made more forays to the net, and it made a big difference,” the American tennis legend said in an interview with WTA Tour.
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Iga Swiatek expects some rivalry in 2023
World No.1 Iga Swiatek owned the 2022 season. She dominated the season with her remarkable performances throughout the year. She boasts a 67-9 win-loss record in the 2022 season. Only a few players were able to defeat her in tournaments. World No.2 Ons Jabeur is the only one who made some forays against her. Also, Aryna Sabalenka was finally able to defeat her in the 2022 WTA Finals semi-final round match.
However, Iga Swiatek wishes to face some hard challenges in the 2023 season.
“For sure rivalry is welcome, I can totally take a lot from that. So I think it’s great that we have so many people we can compete against,” she said in an interview.
She also elaborated upon the retirement of 2022 Australian Open champion Ashleigh Barty and how she motivated her to perform better on the world stage.
“I think we all need somebody who is going to push ourselves to the limit. It gave me a lot of motivation last season when I played against Ash (Barty) in Adelaide. For the next couple of months, before she retired, my main goal was to learn how to play against her a little bit and maybe be able to beat her,” the Pole continued.
However, her wish could not be fulfilled as the Australian retired in early March. But Iga Swiatek is expecting that the 2023 season will surprise her and help her improve herself.
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