Iga Swiatek & Hubi Hurkacz give Poland perfect start at United Cup in Perth

 

PERTH, Australia -- World No.1 Iga Swiatek enjoyed a victorious start to her 2024 season, defeating No.11 Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-2, 6-2 at the United Cup. Swiatek's victory gave Poland an early 1-0 lead over Brazil in their opening tie in Group A. The victory extended Swiatek's active win streak to 12 consecutive matches.

Hubert Hurkacz followed Swiatek with a comeback 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-3 victory over Thiago Seyboth Wild in two hours and 24 minutes. The victory gave Poland an unassailable 2-0 lead to clinch the tie. Swiatek and Hurkacz teamed up to give Poland a clean sweep, defeating Haddad Maia and Marcelo Melo 6-4, 6-3 in mixed doubles.

Seeded No.1, Poland moves to 1-0 in Group A. Brazil drops to 0-2 and is eliminated, having dropped its opening tie to Spain.

Saturday's match was not only a rematch of last year's French Open semifinal, but it also pit two extended winning streaks against each other. Swiatek and Haddad Maia finished their 2023 campaigns with unbeaten runs. Swiatek reeled off 11 consecutive wins to capture the China Open and WTA Finals to finish the year at No.1. Haddad Maia took the title at the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai and extended her streak to seven after defeating Sara Sorribes Tormo on Day 1 at the United Cup.

In their third career meeting, Swiatek took control from the start and did not let up. Haddad Maia held serve to open the match before Swiatek ran off five consecutive games with her relentless baseline pressure and closed the set two games later.

Haddad Maia amplified her aggression in the second set and was rewarded by her first three break points of the match. But Swiatek dismissed them all with pinpoint serving to open a 4-1 lead. The Brazilian finally broke serve with a perfectly timed backhand winner to close the gap at 4-2. Swiatek responded by winning eight of the next 10 points to seal the victory after 1 hour and 18 minutes.

"I didn't hesitate," Swiatek said. "Even though it's a quicker surface than what I practiced on, I didn't slow my hand down. And also I was feeling pretty relaxed. I think the way we did this pre-season with more peace and more time actually for me to reset and sometimes even have a couple of days off between the training blocks, I think it just gave me a lot of peace.

"I was really focused during this pre-season. I hope I'm going to be more relaxed on court because of that at the beginning of the season."

Swiatek finished the match with 21 winners while holding Haddad Maia to just seven. She improved her record to 2-1 over the Brazilian.

Poland will next face Spain in the final tie of Group A. Hurkacz, who won titles in Marseille and Shanghai in 2023, went 26-6 against players outside the Top 50 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings last season. He will look to remain unbeaten in the new season when he meets Alejandro Davidovich Fokina on Monday. Swiatek will take on Sara Sorribes Tormo.

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Iga Swiatek confident ahead of pressure-packed Olympic year

PERTH, Australia -- Iga Swiatek has been here before. Last year, the 22-year-old kicked off her season at the United Cup with the No.1 ranking next to her name. Twelve months on, she is back at it again, this time leading Poland in Perth.

Yet for Swiatek, this is no redux. As she prepares for her first match of the season on Dec. 30 against Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia, Swiatek is in the midst of an evolution, one she cemented by her perfect run at the WTA Finals in Cancun to edge Aryna Sabalenka for the year-end No.1 ranking.

"Playing these final matches in Cancun with such baggage on my shoulders in terms of rankings, it gave me a lot of confidence," Swiatek told reporters at United Cup Media Day. "I learned a lot about myself. I'm going to take it in 2024.

"Honestly, I'm looking ahead for these tournaments that are going to happen here in Australia for me. I want to take it step by step. I feel more prepared for sure to deal with the pressure of being World No.1 this year than last year."

With more tools at her disposal, Swiatek feels well-equipped to take on yet another tricky season. While last year's degree of difficulty was boosted by the pressure to back up her historic 2022 season, this year's schedule will include the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will be played this summer at Roland Garros.

The importance of the Olympics can vary from player to player, but Swiatek has a special connection to the games. Her father, Tomasz, competed at the 1988 Olympics as a rower.

Swiatek made her own Olympics debut in Tokyo in 2021. She lost in the second round to Paula Badosa.

"For sure the pressure was huge," Swiatek said. "I mean, you could see after I lost against Paula, I cried, it was a big fuss.

"This time is going to be a little bit different. I'm going to know the venue. It's going to be on my favorite surface. On the other hand, these also bring up more expectations from the outside.

"I guess I'll have to do the same kind of work as I do on every other tournament. I'm not going to lie to myself that it's going to be easy or the same because it will be different a little bit."

Behind Swiatek and Hubert Hurkacz, Poland is the top seed at the United Cup. WTA Coach of the Year Tomasz Wiktorowski plans to use the week to build toward Olympic success.

"Obviously we won't be able to practice mixed doubles too many times, so this is a very good chance for us to play for our country and at the same time, to practice for Olympic Games," Wiktorowski said.

"We're always saying we're always right here right now for this tournament, but, yes, with Iga we are thinking about the Olympics. Maybe we'll have one more chance in Indian Wells -- there is a small exo where we can play mixed doubles. We have a chance for Olympic medal. We're going to practice here and try to deliver to the court the best quality we can."

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Iga Swiatek and team Poland hit the beach in Perth Australia

World No.1 Iga Swiatek and Top 10 ATP star Hubert Hurkacz swapped their racquets for surfboards on Thursday in Perth, where they visited Scarborough Beach with the rest of their United Cup teammates.


Ahead of the United Cup, the tournament’s top seeds took time to soak in the sun and put their surfing skills to the test, hitting the Indian Ocean waves and sharing laughs.

“I have had two windsurfing lessons but I had never surfed before,” Swiatek said. “You guys will have to teach me. My tennis is better for sure!”

Swiatek is making her second appearance at the United Cup, having won three of her four singles matches at the tournament last season to help guide Poland to the semifinals.

With Poland set to face Brazil in its opening match on Saturday, Swiatek is excited to be back at the event. She will face No.11 Beatriz Haddad Maia in her season opener, a rematch of last year's French Open semifinal.

“It is always exciting to be part of Team Poland,” Swiatek said. “I am happy to be playing this event a second time. Last year we had a lot of fun and this year hopefully it will be similar. This is my first time in Perth.

“It is always a challenge, especially when you play the first tournament of the year. But I am pretty excited and besides singles hopefully I play some mixed doubles as I have not played mixed for a while.”

Hurkacz is Poland’s leading men’s player and starts the season at No.9 in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings after an impressive 2023 season, highlighted by titles in Marseille and Shanghai.

Like Swiatek, the 26-year-old also tested his surfing skills in Perth. Hurkacz is hoping to perform better on court than he did in the ocean.

“It was difficult!” Hurkacz said when asked about his surfing experience. “I thought it would have been a little bit easier. This is my first time in Perth. I like the sea and I am enjoying my time.

“[On Brazil], it is the first match of the year so it is always a bit tricky, but we will try and do our best.”

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Iga Swiatek & Tomasz Wiktorowski named player and coach of the year

•WTA Awards Week kicks off with nine winners announced Monday

•Iga Swiatek, Zheng Qinwen and Mirra Andreeva among Player Award winners
•Ons Jabeur receives two Player Service honors
•Tomasz Wiktorowski named WTA Coach of the Year

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- As 2023 season comes to a close, the WTA will celebrate the standout performers over the next few days as part of awards week, which kicks off Monday with the announcement of the individual award winners.

From Dec. 11 to 15, the WTA will honor the best players, tournaments and coach of the year, as well as those athletes who have made an exceptional contribution to the Hologic WTA Tour at every level.

On Monday, the WTA named five Player Awards, three Player Services Awards and the Coach of Year Award, with the Tournaments of the Year to be unveiled later in the week. All winners will be celebrated across social media and digital platforms over the coming days.

The 2023 WTA Player Award winners, as voted for by international tennis media, are:

Player of the Year: Iga Swiatek

World No.1 Iga Swiatek has been voted as the WTA Player of the Year for the second year in a row, becoming the first player to earn the accolade in back-to-back seasons since Serena Williams from 2012 to 2016. Swiatek won a tour-leading six titles, defending her Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, winning the WTA 1000 China Open (Beijing), WTA 500 events at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open (Doha) and Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (Stuttgart), on home soil at the WTA 250 BNP Paribas Warsaw Open before closing out the season going unbeaten at the GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun. Her first WTA Finals crown also secured her the year-end No.1 singles ranking for the second consecutive season.

How vulnerability is one of the key assets to the success of Iga Swiatek

Doubles Team of the Year: Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens

Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens first season competing together on our has proved incredibly successful. The potential for a successful partnership was clear from their debut event together with a quarterfinal run at the Australian Open, before picking up WTA 1000 titles at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome and the Guadalajara Open AKRON Presented by SANTANDER. The pair also reached the title match at the WTA 250 Rothesay Classic Birmingham and Wimbledon, with Hunter closing out an incredible year ranked as the WTA doubles year-end No.1.

Most Improved Player of the Year: Zheng Qinwen

Zheng Qinwen is no stranger to the WTA Awards, having been voted as 2022's Newcomer of the Year and has followed this up with more success this season by winning the Most Improved Player of the Year accolade. Zheng collected her first title at the WTA 250 34 Palermo Ladies Open in June, before reaching another career milestone with a quarterfinal run at the US Open. Her rise continued with a second title, this time on home soil at the WTA 500 Bank of Communications Zhengzhou Open. She closed out the season by winning 12 of her last 15 matches culminating with the final at the Huafa Technology WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai, achieving a new career-high ranking of No.15.

Newcomer of the Year: Mirra Andreeva

No player in the year-end WTA Top 100 enjoyed a greater rankings jump between 2022 and 2023 than Mirra Andreeva, leaping from No.405 to No.46. She kicked off this season in fine form by reaching the Australian Open girls' final before bursting onto the Hologic WTA Tour with a fairytale Round of 16 run at the WTA 1000 Mutua Madrid Open aged just 16 years old, defeating two Top 20 players in the process. She backed this up by storming through qualifying in her debut Grand Slam at Roland-Garros to make the third round and performed similar heroics to reach the second week at Wimbledon.

Comeback Player of the Year: Elina Svitolina

Elina Svitolina spent 12 months away from the Hologic WTA Tour to welcome daughter Skaï, who was born in October 2022, to her family. Svitolina returned to action in April 2023. Before her pregnancy, Svitolina had spent over 200 consecutive weeks in the Top 10 and just a month after her welcome return to the courts she claimed her 17th career title, at the WTA 500 Internationaux de Strasbourg. Her comeback continued with a quarterfinal run at Roland Garros followed by matching her best Grand Slam result by reaching the semifinal at Wimbledon, defeating WTA World No.1 Iga Swiatek in the process. Over the space of five months, Svitolina shot back up the WTA Rankings and ended the year almost as if she had never been away, at No.25.

Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award & Peachy Kellmeyer Player Service Award: Ons Jabeur

Ons Jabeur receives double honors in 2023, receiving the Karen Sportsmanship Award for the second year in a row and the Peachy Kellmeyer Player Service Award for the first time in her career. Both are voted on by her WTA athlete peers, with the Karen Krantzcke Sportmanship Award given in recognition for Jabeur’s gracious and considerate manner, support for fair play and respect for others on and off the court. Introduced in 1977, the Peachy Kellmeyer Player Service Award celebrates her outstanding support for her fellow players, as well as other initiatives on behalf of the wider player community. Jabeur joins only Kim Clijsters to have won both awards in the same year.

Jerry Diamond ACES Award: Jessica Pegula

Introduced in 1995 in memory of former WTA CEO Jerry Diamond, the ACES Award this year is presented to Jessica Pegula for her consistent professional conduct and willingness to promote women’s tennis to fans, media and local communities by taking part in off-court promotional and charitable activities. Pegula’s important contribution in championing women’s sport is recognized with this award and her name joins a prestigious list of previous winners, which includes Angelique Kerber, Elina Svitolina and most recently Maria Sakkari.

Coach of the Year, as voted on by WTA registered coaches: Tomasz Wiktorowski

Tomasz Wiktorowski, coach of No.1 Iga Swiatek, has been recognized as the 2023 WTA Coach of the Year for his prominent role in making the Polish star a dominant force in their two years together. Wiktorowski was voted to win this award by WTA registered coaches due to the partnership's resilience and mental strength having faced stiff competition in 2023 to hold and recapture the WTA No.1 ranking in addition to leading the tour for titles won (six) and match wins (68). Among many highlights this season was Swiatek becoming the first woman to defend the Roland Garros title since Justine Henin in 2007 and winning the GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun without losing a match, the first time this has been done since 2018 when Elina Svitolina went undefeated.

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Iga Swiatek reunited with the Christ Evert trophy as year-end World #1

Iga Swiatek sweeps WTA Finals takes back year end #1 ranking

 

CANCUN, Mexico -- How do you top a season that's already rewritten the record books?

For Iga Swiatek, you don’t. Or perhaps, you do.

Last year, Swiatek famously ran off with 37 straight wins, more than anyone else this century. She had no competition for her No.1 ranking and, quite frankly, was in a league of her own.

But then this year happened. In September, her 75-week run as the No.1 player came to an end after the US Open. Swiatek was visibly shaken. It turned out the downturn hurt more than she had let on. Afterward, she said all the right things. She was in no rush to take the No.1 back from Aryna Sabalenka. Her focus was to play more freely, to improve herself -- as a player and a person. If she did that, the top ranking would return.

And it did. On Monday, she finished off another ridiculous stretch. A day after routing Sabalenka, Swiatek dropped only a game against Jessica Pegula in the championship match of this year’s WTA Finals. Altogether, Swiatek did not drop a set in Cancun -- this against the best competition in the world.

"2022 was so amazing that I don't know if it's gonna be possible for me to repeat a season like that," Swiatek said. "So I just didn't feel at the end like I'm in the shadow anymore because I knew that I'm having another great season. And honestly, I kind of accepted that I'm not going to have a season like that, like in 2022, and I just looked forward."

Dating back to Tokyo, her first event after the US Open, Swiatek went on to win 12 of her last 13 matches to finish the year. She rolled to the title in Beijing. Then in Cancun, knowing she would likely need to run the table to have a chance at No.1, she became a wrecking ball.

"I learned my lesson and this time I didn't want [the No.1 ranking] to have an impact on me," Swiatek said. "It did a little bit -- it's hard not to think about stuff like that -- but actually, when I went on court, I knew that I had to focus on different things. And actually, the conditions here that were kind of tricky, also helped me to just focus on my footwork, my shots, and that just kept me busy from thinking about all of that."

Against Sabalenka in the semifinals, Swiatek put in one of the most emphatic matches of her career to win 6-3, 6-2. She then outdid that with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Pegula, a player who beat her twice this season. Swiatek bested the marks set by Martina Navratilova in 1983 and Kim Clijsters in 2003 (both of whom lost two) for the fewest games conceded in a WTA Finals title match.

"She's been, in my mind, the one to beat the last couple years,” Pegula said. “She's showing that even when she loses some matches or doesn't win the tournament, that she's still bouncing right back and is playing at a high level every single week.

"That's what a top player does, what a champion does, and I think she showed that."

And with that, Swiatek put an exclamation point on her 2023 season by completing the most dominant run in the year-end championships since the round-robin format was reintroduced in 2003. It was a fitting end for the player with more wins, titles and victories over Top 10 opponents than anyone on tour.

To appreciate what Swiatek has done not just in 2023, but in her back-to-back seasons, look at the company she keeps in the stat books.

The stats that matter:

20: Number of games lost by Swiatek across five matches in Cancun, the fewest games lost since the round-robin format was reintroduced in 2003. She shattered Serena Williams' 2012 run, in which the American dropped 32 games. Swiatek lost just 20.

68: Match-wins for Swiatek in 2023. That's one more win than her 2022 campaign and the most for any player since Williams won 79 in 2013. Swiatek is the first player under 23 to win 65 or more matches in back-to-back seasons since Martina Hingis (1997-2000).

3: Players to win titles at every WTA tournament level in a single season. With her titles in Warsaw (WTA 250), Stuttgart and Doha (WTA 500), Beijing (WTA 1000) and Roland Garros (Grand Slam), she joins Williams (2013) and Petra Kvitova (2011) as the only players accomplish the feat.

33: Top 10 wins since the start of 2020 for Swiatek. How does that compare to the rest of the field? The next most over that time span is Maria Sakkari with 19.

4: Players who won the WTA Finals before turning 23: Kim Clijsters, Maria Sharapova, Kvitova and Swiatek.

2: Number of players in the Open Era to win 17 tournaments in their first 21 finals. With a 17-4 record in finals, Swiatek matched Chris Evert as the only other player to do so.

20: Number of 6-0 sets Swiatek dished out in 2023. She is the first player to register 20 or more in back-to-back seasons since Stefanie Graf and Monica Seles in 1991-92.

13: Number of Top 10 wins this season for Swiatek. She is the first player since Serena Williams (2013- 14) to tally 10 or more Top 10 wins in consecutive seasons.

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What a way to finish the season!. 

I mean you can't get anymore emphatic than that. It's all made especially impressive when you factor in the elements and all the other outside factors she had to deal with this tournament. 

I mentioned earlier in the year that I didn't think Sabalenka would hold on to that #1 ranking for long because Iga would be getting it back in the future. 

The year hasn't even ended yet and here she is back at #1.

Honestly if I ever hear one more person say that Iga's 2023 season was bad and that nothing compares to 2022 I will just point them to all the stats listed in this article because it proves otherwise. 

One of my fave stats missing from the list ending the year as #1 for 2 years running.

This 22 year old does nothing but write herself into the tennis history books with every passing year. 

And it's a real pleasure to witness (still hoping I will get to witness it live one day).

Thank you Iga, for your fight, your drive, your resilience and most of all thank you for all the emotions throughout this season. 

It has been a pleasure to watch you grow as a person and a player. The sport is better with you in it. Get some well deserved rest and all the Tiramisu that you want. 

See you in 2024. 

Jazda! 

Iga Swiatek topples World #1 Sabalenka to reach career first WTA Final

CANCUN, Mexico -- Iga Swiatek defeated World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday at the GNP Seguro WTA Finals.

If Swiatek wins Monday’s championship match against Jessica Pegula, she’ll regain the top spot she relinquished two months ago and finish as the year-end No.1 for the second straight time. If Pegula prevails, Sabalenka will finish on top for the first time in her career.

It’s only the fifth time this century that the No.1 ranking was in play at the WTA Finals, the last occurring in 2009, when Serena Williams caught Dinara Safina at the finish line.

Swiatek is now 6-3 in career matches against Sabalenka -- and has won all four of her matches in Estadio Paradisus, all against Top 10 players. Going back to her recent title in Beijing, Swiatek has won 10 consecutive matches.

The 22-year-old from Poland has dropped a total of only 19 games in Cancun, the fewest by any player to reach the WTA Finals championship match since Justine Henin in 2007. Swiatek is also the youngest player to reach the WTA Finals championship match since Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka in 2011.

Pegula, meanwhile, is also 4-0, winning all her Top 10 matches in straight sets. She’s the first to face the Nos.1, 2, 3 and 4-ranked players in the same tournament since the WTA Tour rankings came into being in 1975 -- and, of course, could be the first to defeat them all.

Swiatek has now won a total of 67 matches this year, besting her marvelous 2022 campaign by one.

The match resumed on Sunday, with 18 minutes elapsed and Sabalenka serving to level the first set at 2-all, 30-all. Swiatek needed only two points to break her serve, setting a tone for the rest of the match.

Swiatek served out the set, hitting a sharp backhand down the line that Sabalenka couldn’t quite track down, sending a running forehand long. While the wind wasn’t as substantial as it had been all week long, it was a factor. There were a number of times when Sabalenka was swinging off-balance along the baseline. Swiatek, with flawless footwork, rarely looked out of sync.

The third game of the second set was a test of wills, won by Swiatek. She converted her fourth break point with another error from Sabalenka. Later, in the seventh game, Swiatek broke Sabalenka for the third time in the match before serving out the win.

The final statistics underlined the narrow margins at play in this match. Sabalenka finished with only five winners -- and 18 unforced errors. Swiatek clocked in with nine and nine, typical of her consistent game.

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Sabalenka wanted a battle for the world #1 at the U.S. Open and Ostepenko spoiled the party. 

Well she finally got it here. And I don't think she enjoyed it much.  

That was about as flawless a performance from Iga as I've ever seen. Might just be her best one of the season. 

She came out a woman on a mission, focused and determined from the get go. 

I think she really wanted her first career win over a world #1. It's almost like she said to herself I may be playing a world  #1 but I'm the one who's actually still the best in the world. 

And then she went on to prove it.

Just another phenomenal showing from this amazing 22 year old.  

A real pleasure to watch.

I will be proud no matter what happens tomorrow, but I will also be cheering with all my heart.

One last push to the finish.

Jazda!

1 - Iga Swiatek became the first Polish female player since WTA Rankings were published in 1975 to defeat the World No. 1 in straight sets (retirements excluded). Pioneer.


19 - Since the current Round Robin format was introduced in 2003, Iga Swiatek is now the player with the fewest games dropped to reach the final (19, level with Justine Henin in 2007). Shocking.

Iga Swiatek sweeps WTA Finals group stages sets up semi final rematch with Sabalenka

CANCUN, Mexico -- No.2 Iga Swiatek and No.3 Coco Gauff secured their spots in the semifinals of the GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun on a wind-strewn Friday evening.

Gauff won a battle of two of the Grand Slam champions from this season at the GNP Seguros WTA Finals, defeating Marketa Vondrousova 5-7, 6-7(4), 6-3 in the final round of group play on Friday night.

The win eliminated the Wimbledon champion's hopes of advancing to the semifinals. Gauff is the first teenager to make the final four of the year-end championships since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009.

Later in the evening, Swiatek confirmed her position as the group winner after defeating No.6 seed Ons Jabeur 6-1, 6-2 to go 3-0 in the Chetumal Group.

On Saturday, Swiatek will face No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in a match that could decide the year-end No.1 ranking. If Sabalenka wins, she will finish the year at No.1. If Swiatek prevails, she can retake the top spot only by winning the title. This is a rematch of last year's semifinal in Fort Worth, where Sabalenka won 6-2, 2-6, 6-1. The two have split their two meetings this season, both on clay. Swiatek won the Stuttgart final, while Sabalenka took Madrid.

"We'll see what the conditions are going to be," Swiatek said. "Against Aryna it's never easy. I'm just gonna do my best and focus on myself and what I want to do on court. We usually have these matches that are really exciting and really tough, both mentally and physically."

The other semifinal will showcase Gauff against No.5 Jessica Pegula. It will be the first all-American semifinal at the WTA Finals since the reintroduction of the round-robin format in 2003. Both players are making their semifinal debuts at the year-end tournament. Last year in Fort Worth the duo went winless in both singles and doubles. This will be the third meeting of the year between the two top-ranked Americans. Gauff won on the grass in Eastbourne and Pegula got her revenge during her title run in Montreal this summer.

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76.9% - Iga Swiatek won 20 of her 26 serving games at the WTA Finals 2023 (76.9%): the highest ratio in the Round Robin at the tournament so far. Unbreakable.


4 - Iga Swiatek (66), Jessica Pegula (56), Aryna Sabalenka (55) and Coco Gauff (50) are the only four players with 50+ WTA main draw wins in 2023. Lineup.


4 - The World No. 1 (Sabalenka) and World No. 2 (Swiatek) will face each other at the WTA Finals SFs for the 4th time in the last 40 years after Wozniacki-Zvonareva (2010), Azarenka-Sharapova (2012) and Barty-Pliskova (2019). Show.

Honestly the conditions at this year's WTA Finals have to be the worst in the tournaments history. Rain delays/stoppages for 3, 4 days straight. Gale force winds. A badly constructed court. Lack of crowds due to the late construction and lack of promotion. 

You name it this tournament pretty much has it. A circus is the best way to describe what's been happening this week. And somehow the 8 best women's players are expected to perform with it all. 

It's a damn miracle no one has gotten injured.  

Through it all somehow the 2 best players in the world have made it, and will battle each other for the year end #1 ranking. 

In that sense you can't write a better script (except for maybe having it in the final instead of the semis). 

But it's just sad that instead of enjoying quality tennis we're getting the result of whoever deals with the conditions better. 

That is not what the WTA Finals was designed for and it's not what it's suppose to be about. 

Whoever thought it was a good idea to play the final tournament of the year on an outside court in a tropical city at this time of year should A. be fired and B. never do it again. 

The WTA leadership needs a serious overhaul starting with getting rid of Steve Simon because he has been failing time and time again especially when it comes to this event post pandemic. 

They need someone who not only cares about the sport itself (the business side of it) but the women playing it. Because this whole week has been abhorrent.                                                  

Iga Swiatek gets the better of Coco Gauff once again to stay ahead in WTA Finals group stage

 

CANCUN, Mexico -- Iga Swiatek sure looks like someone intent on regaining her No.1 ranking. On Wednesday, she defeated Coco Gauff 6-0, 7-5 at the GNP Seguro WTA Finals.

Swiatek is now 2-0 here, but has not officially qualified for the semfinals after Ons Jabeur beat Marketa Vondrousova in straight sets.

“In the second set, obviously, it got more tight,” Swiatek told reporters afterward. “I was happy I stayed focused. I had plenty of chances in her first service games to break back, but I knew somehow I would use one of those chances.”

Swiatek, now 2-0 here, is now in an excellent position to win the Chetumal Group and advance to the semifinals, pending the result of the later match. Gauff, meanwhile, will likely have to defeat Vondrousova on Friday to have a chance to lock down the second spot in the group.

Swiatek beat Gauff for the ninth time in 10 meetings, all of which have come in straight sets. Their rivalry has some historic relevance. It’s only the fourth time competitors have played 10 or more times this century, and look at the quality of their predecessors: Kim Clijsters-Justine Henin, Agnieszka Radwanska-Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki-Dominika Cibulkova.

Gauff ended a 0-for-7 streak against Swiatek in the Cincinnati semifinals, but their past two matches have been one-sided. Gauff, 19, has been scorching hot since August, going back to her title in Washington, D.C., producing a record of 23-3. Two of those losses came to the World No.2.

The first set was a disaster for Gauff, who seemed unnerved by the breezy conditions on Estadio Paradisus. Swiatek, attacking Gauff’s sometimes faulty forehand, calibrated her shots far better in the wind. Gauff grew increasingly frustrated, bouncing her racquet off the court and throwing up her hands after another errant forehand.

Gauff won four of 16 serve points in that first frame and was broken all three times. After a scant 28 minutes, she was down a set.

It was, incredibly, the fifth 6-0 set of the tournament’s first seven singles matches.

The second set was an impressive reset for the teenager. She crafted two break points, converted one and raced out to a 3-1 lead. That was when both players started playing some of their best tennis.

Throughout the match, Swiatek targeted Gauff's forehand, which she hit an average of 6 mph slower than her backhand.

In all, there were five breaks in the second set. Serving for the set, Gauff stroked four consecutive double faults. The last break came when Swiatek broke Gauff for the third straight time when an overhead found the net on match point.

Statistically, Gauff struggled, serving 10 times -- with six breaks by Swiatek. The American finished with only five winners, against 30 unforced errors. Swiatek was 11 and 23 and was broken only once.

“I would say this match wasn’t consistent, in terms of the level," Swiatek said. “So for sure, adjusting to everything that happened was the most important thing. It took me a while because I was a break down in the second set.

“I’m happy that I could actually problem solve a little the way to win these last games. And the key was, maybe being confident and mentally not focusing on the score, but really just sticking with the plan that worked in the first set.”

wtatennis.com

30 - With victory over Coco Gauff in Cancun, Iga Swiatek has matched Monica Seles for the fewest matches taken (44) to achieve 30 wins against opponents ranked in the WTA's top 10 in the past four decades. Dominant.


65 - Iga Swiatek is the third player in the last 30 years to win 65+ WTA Tour matches for consecutive seasons after Jelena Jankovic (2007-2008) and Martina Hingis (1999-2000). Incessancy.


With her win over Coco Gauff at the WTA Finals, 
@iga_swiatek has become the first woman to record 65 wins in back-to-back seasons in *15* years—since Jelena Jankovic in 2007-2008.  She's also the first player, male or female, to record 65 wins *this* year:


10 - Iga Swiatek is the first player to secure 10+ wins against top-10 opponents for consecutive seasons (15 in 2022 and 10 in 2023) since Serena Williams in 2013-2014. Juggler.


22 - Iga Swiatek is the first player to win 22 sets with a 6-0 scoreline in a single season since... Iga Swiatek in 2022 (also 22). Serious?

Why write a summery of this match when I can just throw these awesome stats on here, which I can always look back on :D Iga Swiatek making tennis history with every passing day :)