“That’s where we are really judged” Iga Swiatek speaks about the challenges she might face after being the World No. 1
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Iga Swiatek
Soon to be the World No. 1 Iga Swiatek looks undefeatable as she breezes past into the quarter-finals of the 2022 Miami Open looking to achieve the Sunshine Double having already won the 2022 Indian Wells Open in the previous week. Iga had defeated Maria Sakkari in the finals in Indian Wells with both players breaking into the top-3 with Maria on the 3rd spot and Iga on the 2nd.
With Ash Barty shocking the world with her sudden retirement, Iga and Maria were the favourites to rise to the World No. 1 position that had been left vacant with Barty’s retirement. However, Maria lost in the second round in Miami and the 20-year old Pole remained undefeated to confirm her place at the top and become one of the youngest World No. 1 players.
As she now has another week to wait to be officially on the chart as rankings are not updated during the tournaments, Iga talked about how she plans to hold on to her position as the top-ranked player on the WTA Tour and how she hopes to achieve some of her goals from when she started playing tennis.
“I don’t know how I will be number 1, or if anything will change in the WTA, they have been doing a great job promoting tennis for a long time, women’s sport in general. My goal from the beginning was to make tennis more popular in Poland, so I will focus on that first and foremost. It’s likely now that I’ll have more impact, although I don’t want to put too much pressure on my shoulders either.
“I want to give myself time and maybe one day I will feel strong enough to represent tennis on an international stage. Where I definitely want to be an example is on the pitch, with good sportsmanship, that’s where we are really judged,” said Iga during her press conference at the Miami Open.
Iga Swiatek to take on Petra Kvitova in the quarter-finals
Iga will now take on former World No. 2 Petra Kvitova in the quarter-finals in what will be their first-ever meeting on the Tour. Petra also had a bye in the first round like Iga and has since then apart from her second-round win, has won the remaining two matches in straight-sets. While Iga has dropped only 9 games, Kvitova certainly has the experience to turn the match on its head against the Pole.
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