Poland’s Iga Swiatek celebrates with the trophy after profitable her ultimate match in opposition to Jessica Pegula of the U.S.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Right after relinquishing the No. 1 rating two months in the past, Iga Swiatek could not assist however fear about attempting to regain it.
“It’s hard not to think about stuff like that,” she defined.
And then Swiatek realized it was higher to set that form of factor apart and, as an alternative, merely give attention to enjoying her greatest tennis — and her greatest is best than anybody else’s at the second. Swiatek earned her first WTA Finals title and clinched the year-end No. 1 rating by overwhelming Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-0 on Monday in the newest in a sequence of dominant performances.
“Today was like a highlight of this mental (approach) — just being narrow with your head, only thinking about the right stuff,” stated Swiatek, a 22-year-old from Poland who’s the youngest WTA Finals champion since Petra Kvitova was 21 in 2011.
Swiatek went 5-0 at the tour’s season-closing championship, profitable all 10 units she performed and ceding a complete of simply 20 video games. That’s the fewest by the winner at the occasion for the prime eight ladies in tennis since the round-robin format returned in 2003.
“She clearly really wanted that ranking,” Pegula said. “I mean, you could tell by the way she was competing here. … She was, like today, crushing people.” Swiatek prolonged her profitable streak to 11 matches and improved to 68-11 in 2023 with six trophies, together with her fourth profession Grand Slam title at the French Open in June.
Pegula known as it “an amazing year.” This victory permits Swiatek to return to No. 1, a spot she held from April 2022 till this September, when Aryna Sabalenka overtook her after the U.S. Open. In Cancun, Swiatek defeated Sabalenka in a semifinal that started Saturday, was suspended by rain, then completed on Sunday.
Pegula, a 29-year-old American, hadn’t dropped a set getting into Monday.
By beating No. 1 Sabalenka and No. 4 Elena Rybakina in the group stage, eliminating her doubles associate, No. 3 Coco Gauff, in the semifinals and taking over No. 2 Swiatek, Pegula grew to become the first lady to face every of the prime 4 gamers in the world at one occasion since the begin of the WTA rankings in 1975.
But Pegula’s nine-match profitable streak was stopped emphatically by Swiatek.
Swiatek completed with extra winners, 9-6, and much fewer unforced errors, 23-6. She broke Pegula 5 occasions whereas solely dealing with one break level herself — and it got here as Swiatek served for the match in the final recreation.
Swiatek received 25 of 36 factors in the first set, and 26 of 36 in the second.
“It just was one of those days where I felt like I was going for too much,” Pegula stated. “And she was just playing super solid.” When it ended, Swiatek dropped to her again, then sat up and yelled. Some spectators waved red-and-white Polish flags. During the trophy presentation, followers showered her with chants of “Iga!” The ultimate was performed beneath a principally blue sky and with far much less wind than gamers had been compelled to cope with all through the week. And, most significantly, there wasn’t a drop of rain.
Laura Siegemund of Germany and Vera Zvonareva of Russia received the doubles title by beating Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the U.S. and Ellen Perez of Australia 6-4, 6-4.
The singles and doubles title matches each initially had been scheduled to be contested Sunday, then had been pushed again after a sequence of showers affected play.
“It hasn’t hasn’t been the easiest week,” Pegula informed the crowd, “for any of us.”
