Iga Swiatek into Madrid Open 4th round

World No.1 Iga Swiatek extended her clay-court winning streak this spring to six with a 6-3, 6-2 win over No.29 seed Bernarda Pera on Sunday in the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open.

Thought she was a break down early in the first set, Swiatek needed just 75 minutes to dispatch Pera and move through to a fourth-round meeting with either No.16 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova, who came from a set down to beat No.22 seed Zheng Qinwen 5-7, 6-4, 6-2.

"I wouldn't say it was easy. Every match is tricky here," Swiatek said afterwards. "I'm happy that I'm getting my rhythm. Playing against a lefty is never easy ... but I'm pretty happy that I was disciplined and focused."

2: Swiatek is now 2-0 against Pera in her career. Their first meeting came four years ago, on grass in Birmingham, where Swiatek saved three match points in a 2-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 win.

6: Swiatek has now won six straight matches in her clay-court season with the loss of just one set.

7: Outside of the aforementioned love break of Swiatek's serve in the first set, Pera won just seven points in the World No.1's eight other service games in the match.

9: Swiatek is now a perfect 9-0 against Americans on clay in her career to date, and hasn't lost a set in those matches.


13: Swiatek created 13 break points against Pera's serve in victory, successfully converting on four. By contrast, Pera created just one break point against Swiatek's serve -- and did convert it.

In addition, Swiatek is now 13-1 in her last 14 matches against left-handers, losing only to Beatriz Haddad Maia in Toronto last summer.

16: Swiatek was the first player broken in the match, as Pera led 2-1 with a break in the first set. However, from that point on, Swiatek won 16 of 20 points played in the next four games to move ahead 5-2, and take a lead she'd never relinquish.

20: Twenty of Swiatek's 21 victories in 2023 have come in straight sets.

24: Swiatek now boasts 24 wins on clay in the last two years.

25: Pera racked up 25 unforced errors in defeat, nearly three times Swiatek's total of nine. Swiatek only hit four more winners than Pera (16 to 12).

1: Swiatek is 1-1 in her career vs. Alexandrova, and this will be their first meeting on clay. Alexandrova won in straight sets when the two played at the Gippsland Trophy in Melbourne last year, but Swiatek won in three sets when the pair played in Ostrava last fall.

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Iga Swiatek makes winning return to Madrid

 

World No.1 Iga Swiatek made a winning return to the Mutua Madrid Open on Friday with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Austrian lucky loser Julia Grabher.

After winning four matches last week on the indoor clay at the Porsche Arena to win the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, Swiatek's spring clay-court winning streak is now at five matches.

Back to the Caja Magica: In the midst of what became her history-making 37-match winning streak, Swiatek didn't play in Madrid last year due to a shoulder injury. She reached the third round in her tournament debut in 2021; seeded No. 14 that year, she lost to then-World No.1 Ashleigh Barty.

Swiatek's latest streak: Swiatek has now won her last 16 matches against qualifiers or lucky losers.

Her last defeat in such a match came before she won her first Grand Slam title: against Arantxa Rus at the 2020 Internazionali BNL d'Italia. Two weeks later, she won her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros.

Grabher replaced 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu in the women's field at the first WTA 1000 event on clay this spring, and came through a Round 1 match against fellow lucky loser Viktoriya Tomova to set up her first career match against a No.1 player.


Pera awaits: Swiatek will next face American left-hander Bernarda Pera, the No.28 seed. Pera was a 6-1, 6-3 winner over Germany's Tatjana Maria, putting her in the third round in Madrid for the first time in five years.

Pera and Swiatek have played once previously, in a dramatic qualifying match on grass in Birmingham in 2019: Swiatek won, 2-6, 7-6(6), 6-4.

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Good start for Iga after a few years absence. 

I'm keeping my expectations low but; with Rybakina going out in the first round today if Iga takes it match by match and improves who knows what might come of it. 

Jazda! 

Iga Swiatek taking a step-by-step approach to solving the Madrid puzzle

MADRID -- For all of Iga Swiatek's clay-court ascendancy over the past three years, the one tournament that remains her trickiest challenge is the Mutua Madrid Open.

Since winning Roland Garros in 2020 -- her first Hologic WTA Tour title and first Grand Slam -- Swiatek has played eight clay-court tournaments. She walked away as the champion at five of them. In all, she has won Roland Garros twice, Rome twice and Stuttgart twice.

Madrid is the biggest European clay-court event missing from her resume. Now she's set to play the tournament as a the top seed for the first time.

"Obviously I want to win every tournament that I go to, but Madrid, for sure, is still this kind of tournament that I haven't figured it out for 100 percent," the World No.1 told reporters ahead of Madrid. "So I just want to get the experience. Winning would mean that I would play six matches, so that's a lot and I can learn a lot from that.

"But for now I'm just really focused on the first round, and I want to do it step by step. So we'll see."

To be fair, Swiatek has played the tournament only once, where she advanced to the Round of 16 in 2021 and bowed out to No.1 Ashleigh Barty, 7-5, 6-4. Last year, Swiatek pulled out of the event after her undefeated run through four straight tournaments.

By her own admission, Swiatek said she's played at higher altitudes only twice in her career, first in Madrid and then at the 2021 WTA Finals in Guadalajara. Despite the variables, Swiatek seemed confident and calm as she addressed the changing conditions.

"I felt like it was flying off my racquet pretty quickly," Swiatek said after her first practice. "But also I have a lot of things I can change still, like string tension and everything. So my coach is already kind of working on that, and I think every hour is going to give me a lot.

"[At] Roland Garros and Stuttgart, my main goal was to play as hard as possible, because these balls are heavy. Here we also have heavy balls, but I feel like they are more flying like bullets. You have to control them. And the clay is a little bit different. The movement and stuff, I just have to get used to it.

"That's fine. I think I just need a couple of days."

Swiatek's confidence is not lacking. She is coming off a successful title defense on the indoor clay in Stuttgart to capture her second title of the season. Her title run, which included a straight-sets win against No.2 Aryna Sabalenka in the final, was a meaningful one for Swiatek. Her opening match at the Porsche Arena came after a 45-day hiatus to nurse a rib injury.

The injury limited her ability to serve during her rehabilitation, but she quieted the doubts as her quality improved throughout the week. Her final performance was a statement. She fended off Sabalenka and went unbroken for the match. The very shot that was the most vulnerable at the start of the week turned out to be the key to her win.

With her fitness concerns firmly in the rearview mirror, Swiatek now races to adjust to the starkly different conditions at the Caja Magica.

"In Stuttgart, I think this is more of a tournament that is a great transition between hard court and clay because it's fast," Swiatek said. "Tactically, you just have to play fast as well and move your opponent around, because it's hard to come back and recover from all this sliding.

"In Rome it's harder to do that because everything is slower. You have to be more patient. Rallies are going to be longer. You're going to feel that you're not playing as fast as you could, but it's not true.

"Here, I can't really say a lot, because that's my second time that I'm gonna play this tournament. I don't have a lot of experience here, but the main thing I think it's having control in the altitude. That's what I'm going to focus on."

Playing as the top seed in Madrid, Swiatek has a bye into the second round. She will face either Viktoriya Tomova or Julia Grabher.

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Iga Swiatek beats Sabalenka to win 2nd straight Stuttgart Open

World No.1 Iga Swiatek successfully defended her Porsche Tennis Grand Prix title on Sunday, finishing up her triumphant week by defeating World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 6-4 in a hard-hitting championship match.

In a rematch of last year’s final, the top two players in the Hologic WTA Tour rankings blasted the ball for 1 hour and 50 minutes before Swiatek captured her 13th career singles title on the indoor clay of Stuttgart.

"I wanted to win really, really hard, but I knew that I can't really focus on that and just I have to keep doing my job as I did on previous matches," Swiatek said afterwards. "I'm pretty happy that I could kind of have good mentality and just focus on what I want to do tennis-wise."

Stuttgart streak continues: On Sunday, Swiatek maintained her undefeated career record at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (8-0 in her two appearances) and improved to 13-3 in WTA singles finals overall. Swiatek now holds a 5-2 win-loss record against Sabalenka in their rivalry.

By winning her second singles trophy of the year, Swiatek tied Sabalenka and Belinda Bencic for the most titles won so far this season. Sunday’s victory was also Swiatek’s 20th match-win of the year.

Swiatek defended a title for the third time in her career, having previously done so at 2022 Rome and at Doha this year. Swiatek has pulled off two of the three title defenses on tour so far this season; the other was Tatjana Maria’s Bogota title defense from earlier this month.

1 vs. 2: The Stuttgart showdown marked the first time the world’s top two-ranked players met in a WTA singles final since No.2 Caroline Wozniacki beat No.1 Simona Halep for the 2018 Australian Open title.

It was also the first clay-court final between the world’s top two-ranked players in almost a decade -- the last one came at 2013 Roland Garros, where No.1 Serena Williams defeated No.2 Maria Sharapova for the title.

Sabalenka consistency: Reigning Australian Open champion Sabalenka will still exit Stuttgart as the match-win leader for the year, having accrued 23 match-wins thus far in 2023. Sabalenka will also retain her current position as No.1 in the Race to the WTA Finals.

However, Sabalenka is still seeking her first Stuttgart title, despite reaching the final in each of the last three years. Sabalenka was stopped by the World No.1 on all of those occasions, finishing runner-up to Ashleigh Barty in 2021 before her two losses to Swiatek.

Match moments: Power hitting was present from both players all match long on Sunday. Swiatek, though, used her superb defense to extend the eighth game of the match, and she was rewarded with the only break of the first set after she crushed a forehand return winner down the line.

After breaking in the opening game of the second set, Swiatek fell behind 0-30 in her next two service games. But the top seed pulled herself out of peril to eke out more close games, and she eventually wrapped up the match with a love service hold.

Swiatek erased the lone break point she faced in the match, and she won 14 of Sabalenka’s 22 second-service points on the day.

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A world class performance from the World #1. Finals Iga showed up today, just as always another level of excellence. 

Best match of the year for Iga (thus far).

Only one breakpoint to save and held serve all match, redirected and defused Sabalenka's power with her foot speed and athleticism. 

First back to back Stuttgart Champion since Angie Kerber.  

3rd career title defense. Next stop Madrid (one of the few clay court titles Iga has yet to win). 

Youngest player to win 6+ WTA clay courts titles since Martina Hingis when she won Hamburg in 2000. Queen. 

13th career WTA title. 

Jazda!

Draw for Madrid just came out. Rybakina in the quarters of course.

Good. I'm ready for Iga to finally get a win over her this year on her best surface. 

Let's go!.

Iga Swiatek reaches 2nd consecutive final in Stuttgart after Ons Jabeur retirement

 

                                                  Images that break your heart :(

STUTTGART -- World No.1 Iga Swiatek advanced to her second straight Porsche Tennis Grand Prix final after No.4 Ons Jabeur was forced to retire down 3-0 in the semifinals with a left calf injury.

Swiatek will face No.2 Aryna Sabalenka in Sunday's final. The Australian Open champion dropped just three games against Anastasia Potapova to advance to her third straight Stuttgart final.

The much-anticipated first meeting of the season between Swiatek and Jabeur ended prematurely when the Tunisian began to struggle with her left leg after the first game of the match. After chasing down a ball on the last point of the first game, Jabeur called a medical timeout and received treatment and tape on her calf.

"The third point, I don't know what happened," Jabeur said. "I was really excited to play Iga today, it's always a fun matchup between us. I wish her the best luck for the final.

"I'm sorry guys, I really tried to run, but Iga never makes it easy."

Jabeur played on for two more games but was visibly hampered in her movement and serve. After Swiatek held for a 3-0 lead, Jabeur consulted with the physio one more time before crossing the net to shake Swiatek's hand. The loss ended Jabeur's seven-match win streak. She will now race to prepare for her title defense next week at the Mutua Madrid Open.

"I don't know what Ons' situation is, but I really respect the fact that she came out and she tried and she wanted to see how it's going to go," Swiatek said.

"I told her we're probably going to play the Roland Garros final, so we'll see each other there. She's a fighter, so she's going to be back quick. I just hope it's nothing serious."

On Sunday, Swiatek will face Sabalenka in a rematch of last year's Stuttgart final, which Swiatek won 6-2, 6-2. She leads the head-to-head 4-2, but Sabalenka snapped her four-match losing streak last fall by winning their last meeting at the 2022 WTA Finals, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.

Swiatek is bidding to become the first player to defend the title since Angelique Kerber in 2016. The 22-year-old has yet to lose a match in Stuttgart and extended her tournament record to 7-0.

Sabalenka has also enjoyed consistent success at the Porsche Arena. She is into the final for the third consecutive year. In 2021, she finished as the runner-up to Ashleigh Barty (2021), and in 2022, she fell to Swiatek. For the third straight year, Sabalenka will face a reigning No.1 for the title.

"Aryna is a great player and she's in great shape," Swiatek said. "I have to be ready to play my best tennis. For sure, this surface is -- we both like clay court -- but it's a little bit faster than most of the clay courts. I'm gonna have to be ready on my return and just for the fast pace."

Sabalenka won just four games off Swiatek in the final last year, but Sabalenka insists it's a different scenario this time. Swiatek may be No.1, but Sabalenka is now a reigning Australian Open champion who sits atop the Race to the WTA Finals Leaderboard. The serving woes that derailed her last season are gone, replaced by a steely and calm mentality that has allowed her to notch a tour-leading 23 wins this season.

"Last year I was struggling a lot with a lot of things, especially my serve," Sabalenka said. "This year I feel like a different player, different person right now. So I feel I'm much calmer on court."

Stuttgart will be Sabalenka's fourth final of the season (Adelaide 1, Australian Open, Indian Wells) and Swiatek's third (Doha, Dubai). A win on Sunday would be the 13th title for either player.

Reflecting on her return from a 45-day break from competition with a rib injury, Swiatek said she couldn't be happier with how she has handled the week in Stuttgart.

"Even yesterday's match [against Pliskova], even though the beginning wasn't easy, second set and third set I played much better and I improved then," Swiatek said. "That was a great experience to have. The first one against Qinwen as well.

"I'm just happy that I can play good tennis, even though I wasn't practicing a lot and even though my break was pretty long. I'm happy that I could just be here and enjoy this. Honestly, I have only positive thoughts."

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That's certainly not the way this semi final was suppose to go. 

Happy for Iga, but absolutely gutted for Ons Jabeur. 

After just getting back in form too (with the knee surgery) and winning a title on green clay in Charleston. 

Damn you tennis gods!. 

Hoping it's nothing serious and wishing a very speedy recovery to Ons. 

So we've got a repeat of last year's final with a better serving Sabalenka (who's always a hit and miss for me).  

Still not a fan of her grunting and screaming and especially her behavior after the final loss in Stuttgart last year. 

Came off really bratty.

It's gonna be tough, Iga will have to be on it from the get go, and probably do a lot of running. 

But if both play well will make for one hell of a quality final. 

Jazda Iga, we believe in you!.

Iga Swiatek battles past Pliskova to reach back to back semis in Stuttgart

 

STUTTGART -- World No.1 Swiatek will face No.4 Ons Jabeur in the semifinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. The defending champion booked her return to the Stuttgart semifinals by coming back from a set down to defeat 2018 champion Karolina Pliskova 4-6, 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.


The only previous time Swiatek and Pliskova met came in the 2021 Rome final, which Swiatek won 6-0, 6-0. On Friday night at the Porsche Arena, Pliskova quickly wiped away her memories of that day. Taking advantage of a slow start from Swiatek, Pliskova raced out to a 4-0 lead after just 17 minutes. But Swiatek gradually found her rhythm and took advantage of Pliskova's serve to turn the match around.

"Overall I felt like at the beginning I couldn't really focus," Swiatek said. "When she's serving, these are like really milliseconds that matter. So I feel like I was playing already good tennis at the end of the first set, but it was already too late kind of to even the score."

Swiatek responded by winning the first four games of the second and raced to the finish line to force the first deciding set of her season. After breaking for a 2-1 lead, Swiatek came through the biggest game of the match, saving two break points to consolidate the lead to 3-1. Swiatek protected her lead well from there, closing out the win after 2 hours and 1 minute.

Swiatek will now face Jabeur for a sixth time, with the World No.1 holding a narrow 3-2 lead in their head-to-head series. Swiatek won their two high-stakes meetings last year. The first came in the Rome final, which Swiatek won 6-2, 6-2 to defend her title. The second came in the US Open final, where she prevailed 6-2, 7-6(5) to win her second major title of the season.

"For sure when you have Ons, you're not gonna expect an easy match," Swiatek said. "It's gonna be a little bit different than most of the matches you play. You have to be ready for different game style. It's pretty exciting, but when you're out there on court it's tough."
Jabeur did not sound intimidated by the prospect of facing Swiatek once again. The Tunisian is full of confidence as she rides a seven-match win streak into the semifinals. Fresh off her first title of the season in Charleston, Jabeur advanced to her first Stuttgart semifinal off two very different wins. She rallied from a 6-1, 5-3 deficit to defeat Jelena Ostapenko 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 in her opener. In the quarterfinals she took a more direct route, playing a near-perfect match to drop only three games to Beatriz Haddad Maia.

As Jabeur looks to make a second consecutive final, she is relishing a chance to avenge last year's two losses. She's the only player to post more wins on clay (40) than Swiatek (39) since the start of the 2020 season.

"The good thing maybe, Iga is not at the same level as she was last year," Jabeur said after the quarterfinals. "I'm gonna really focus on playing like I played her on grass at Wimbledon [in 2021].

"I think maybe the key is to be unpredictable with Iga, not knowing which shots I'm gonna do. I think that's really good to disturb her a lot."

With her win over Pliskova, Swiatek improved to 6-0 in Stuttgart for her career. She is bidding to become the first player to defend the title since Angelique Kerber went back-to-back in 2015 and 2016. Playing her first tournament in over a month after being sidelined by a rib injury, Swiatek is into her fourth semifinal of the season.

"With Ons, these matches are always really just tight so every point matters."

"I just hope it's gonna be a nice match, because I'm pretty happy that I'm back and I can just play in front of audience and feel these emotions. Even though my break wasn't really long, I feel like I really missed that."

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Wow. What a match this was. 

I expected Pliskova to play well because you can't play worse than she did in Rome, but I didn't expect her to be this good. 

After Iga lost the first set I was fearing the worst, given her record in 3 setters this season. But she proved us all wrong and showed that on clay especially she knows how to solve problems and fight. 

It was wonderful to see. 

Some of the defense Pliskova made Iga put on, was world class/world #1 stuff. 

The score makes it look easy but, the third set was anything but!. So proud of Iga, and just so darn happy she's healthy and able to play her game. 

Because she really does bring excellence to the sport. 

So now it's Ons Jabeur next, honestly with her style of game you can't really prepare yourself because you just don't know what she's gonna do from one shot to the next. 

But I'm hoping Iga's speed and athleticism will help her counter the variety (and certainly the dropshots)

It's not gonna be easy, and whatever happens it's gonna be fun.

Jazda!.

Iga Swiatek makes triumphant return to Stuttgart

 

She's back: World No.1 Iga Swiatek made a winning return to the Hologic WTA Tour with a commanding Round 2 victory to open her title defense at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

Swiatek needed 1 hour and 26 minutes to defeat China's Zheng Qinwen 6-1, 6-4, extending her unbeaten run in Stuttgart to five matches.


Swiatek moves through to a quarterfinal match against former champion and former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova, who outlasted Donna Vekic in 2 hours and 20 minutes, in a third-set tiebreak, to advance to the final eight.

"I felt like I needed to be 100% focused from the beginning to the end, to think about technique and tactics," Swiatek said afterwards. "I'm pretty happy that I'm not rusty and I could perform good tennis, even though I had a break."

Quick start, strong finish: Playing for the first time in 45 days, Swiatek hardly missed a beat to extend her head-to-head lead over Zheng to 3-0.

She broke the reigning WTA Newcomer of the Year twice in each set to wrap up a straight-sets win, having been pushed to three sets by Zheng in each of their last three matches.

Swiatek didn't face a break point in her first seven service games, and was only pushed to deuce once, en route to building a 6-1, 4-2 lead. After Zheng captured back-to-back games with gritty play -- a scintillating backhand winner setting up her first break point of the match in the eighth game of the second set -- Swiatek had the answers to the challenge.

Challenge accepted: After denying Zheng two points for her first lead of the match, Swiatek broke her for a fourth time and served the match out to 15.

"She's really talented, and everybody can see that," Swiatek said. "I needed to adjust, and I'm just happy that I was focused on myself, on what I wanted to do ... and I feel pretty comfortable. So I'm happy that I could show my good tennis."

Overall, Swiatek showed no signs of the rib injury that forced her out of the Miami Open and Poland's Billie Jean King Cup Qualifier.

'I'm not injured anymore': Swiatek looking to reset in Stuttgart

She landed 62% of her first serves in victory, winning 84% of those points.

Scouting Pliskova vs. Swiatek: Swiatek and Pliskova have only played once previously, but it was memorable. Swiatek won 6-0, 6-0 in the final of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in 2021, a match in which she lost only 13 points.

The two were expected to play in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships this February, but Pliskova was forced to withdraw ahead of the match due to illness.

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I have missed her on court so much!. So great to have her back, happy and healthy and ready for the challenges on tour. 

Tomorrow's match with Pliskova could be interesting, once she gets past that it'd be Haddad Maia or Ons Jabeur than a possible repeat of last year's final with Sabalenka. 

Though I'm hoping she goes out before then. I'm actually a little sad Ons and Iga couldn't meet in the final instead. 

Iga Swiatek ready for reset in Stuttgart title defense Thursday

STUTTGART -- Iga Swiatek assured reporters she is fully fit ahead of her title defense at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

In March, the World No.1 Swiatek was forced to withdraw ahead of the Miami Open and Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers with a rib injury sustained during her run to the Indian Wells semifinals.

"I'm not injured anymore, so that's the most important thing for me," Swiatek said at Media Day in Stuttgart. "I feel like I used that time in Warsaw well to rest a little bit and to not think about tennis.

"I have still been working out physically a little bit and obviously coming back to practicing step by step. Here I am, and I think I'm ready."

Last year, in the midst of her 37-match win streak, Swiatek made her tournament debut in Stuttgart and proceeded to roll to her fourth consecutive title. Facing No.3 seed Aryna Sabalenka in the final, Swiatek cruised to a 6-2, 6-2 win.

While a number of top players like Caroline Garcia, Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina were tied up with Billie Jean King Cup duties last week, Swiatek arrived to the Porsche Arena early and has kept her days busy with intense practice sessions. Hitting sessions with Barbora Krejcikova, Donna Vekic and Caroline Garcia have knocked off any residual rust she might have felt after her break.

"It's pretty easy to kind of just imagine that you are doing the same stuff on a match," Swiatek said of her practices. "So I really use that to kind of get my focus 100 percent and imagine what decisions I would make during the match.

"So I would say, I'm ready. We'll see on court, but honestly, these practices tell me that I play like I wouldn't even had a break. So it's pretty nice.

"I feel like after my experiences with injuries, like when I was younger, 2019, I always came back fast. So I hope it's not gonna change when I'm gonna get older, but I feel like I'm still capable to do that."

Swiatek will face a challenge in her opening match Thursday against China's Zheng Qinwen. The World No.25 has taken a set off Swiatek in both their previous meetings. Zheng has every reason to be confident going into their next match. As opposed to their first two matches, which came last year at the French Open and San Diego, Zheng says she's fully fit for this encounter.

"First time when I meet her, she was No.1 in the world, [and] I was coming from nowhere," Zheng said after her straight-sets win against Alycia Parks in the first round. "First time for me to play in that atmosphere.

"I think now I get a little bit more experience. I wish in the next match I can have a good performance. I want to show my best tennis."

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Iga Swiatek named Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of the year

World No.1 Iga Swiatek has been named to TIME magazine's annual list of the 100 Most Influential People of 2023. Since 1999, the TIME 100 recognizes the movers and shakers across all industries and culture.

On a list that includes leaders and icons across sports, politics and culture, the 22-year-old Polish star landed on the list that includes Joe Biden, Beyoncé and Elon Musk.

Swiatek is one of six athletes on the list, alongside Lionel Messi, Mikaela Shiffrin, Kylian Mbappé, Brittney Griner and Patrick Mahomes.

Swiatek was included in the "Innovators" category. Shiffrin, who was included in the "Pioneers" group, wrote a short essay on Swiatek. The two have developed a strong connection over the years, recently linking up on Instagram Live for a chat.

"As an athlete, and more importantly as a human, she embodies the kind of confidence that everyone should emulate -- the confidence of action over mere talk," Shiffrin wrote.

"To rise to the top of tennis with the limited resources she had coming from Poland is remarkable. She has ignited a nation and given the next generation a reason to believe they can also achieve something incredible."

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