ROME, Italy -- World No.1 Iga Swiatek won her fifth consecutive Hologic WTA Tour title on Sunday, defeating No.7 Ons Jabeur, 6-2, 6-2 to win the Internazionali BNL d'Italia. The 20-year-old Polish star successfully defended her title in Rome and extended her winning streak to 28 consecutive matches.
The victory snapped Jabeur's 11-match winning streak, which began with the Tunisian's title run at the Mutua Madrid Open.
"At the beginning of the tournament, I didn't know it would be possible to keep up the streak and with all the wins," Swiatek said. "I'm pretty happy I did it really step by step and I just focused on the right things because I think it led to all the success this week.
"Yeah, for sure it was a long path for me since the beginning, but I'm really proud of myself and my team."
Swiatek is just the second player to ever win four or more WTA 1000 titles in a single season, after Serena Williams won five in 2013. Swiatek has won every WTA 1000 she has contested this season, winning Doha, Indian Wells, Miami and now Rome. She currently holds five of the last nine WTA 1000 titles.
Swiatek won the first WTA 1000 title of her career last year in Rome. She is the ninth player to win back-to-back titles in Rome and the third-youngest player to capture two titles in Rome, older only than Chris Evert and Gabriela Sabatini.
Coming into Sunday's final, Swiatek was looking to level up her head-to-head against Jabeur, who had won their last two meetings. It did not take long for the World No.1 to put her stamp on the match. Swiatek broke Jabeur early to build a quick 3-0 lead and never relinquished control of the match.
Jabeur found herself with two small openings to break the Swiatek serve, but the Pole slammed the door each time. Serving at 4-2 in the first set, a pair of errors put Swiatek into a 0-30 deficit, which she quickly alleviated to hold. Then, in her opening service game of the second set, Swiatek wiped out the first break point she faced in the match.
Jabeur would snap Swiatek's six-game run with her first break of serve in the match at 4-1 in the second set. Buoyed by the break, Jabeur earned her best chance to flip the match in the 4-2 game. In the best game of the match, Swiatek survived a 0-40 deficit to save four break points and keep Jabeur at bay. The World No.1 outmaneuvered Jabeur in a series of rousing cat-and-mouse rallies before closing out the game with a big first serve.
"Coming back from this Love-40 game in the second set was emotionally also tough," Swiatek said. "It was hard for me to switch the modes to be more focused and play the same kind of tennis I played before.
"I felt relief for sure because the second set, it got to a really physical game. At the end, I was just pretty tired. I'm just really happy that I could cope with all the pressure and expectations so well."
Swiatek is now 8-1 in WTA finals and has run off 16 consecutive sets in finals. She has not lost more than five games in a final since losing the first WTA final she ever contested at 2019 Lugano (l. Polona Hercog).
Having swept the titles in Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, and Rome, Swiatek is now the fourth player in the 2000s to win five or more consecutive tournaments. She joins a vaunted list that includes Venus Williams in 2000, Justine Henin in 2007-2008 and Serena Williams in 2013.
"It's pretty hard to describe it 'cause all these tournaments that I've won seem pretty surreal right now," Swiatek said. "I feel like just continuing the same things that I did before really was the key to that. It's pretty weird because you may think every tournament, that it takes something more. But I'm pretty happy with my solid game. I was able to just play good and also improve during the tournament."
I've said this before I am running out of superlatives when it comes to Iga Swiatek.
I may have to resort to the dictionary!.
I think I recall saying something about Iga flipping a switch when it comes to finals and finding her highest level when she needs it.
Well today she flipped that switch again, and it was glorious. Started fast by breaking quickly as always barely allowing her opponent room to breathe.
She did show she was human right at the of the match. But showed amazing grit at 4/2 40 love down.
Showed a defense only champions come up with under such incredible pressure. It was magnificent. I will be playing that on replay for a while.
The moment when she dropped to her knees and started to sob in relief was so beautiful. I admit I got very teary eyed.
It showed how much this meant to her, and even though she makes it look so easy, how much mental and physical strength it takes to not crumble under the weight of expectation.
With all these incredible records on the line to boot.
A 4th consecutive Masters 1000 title (5th over all for the season), a 28 consecutive win. Another tournament without dropping a single set. 31-0 when winning the first set. 36 or is it 37th victory of the season which is not even at the halfway point yet!.
She's going into Roland Garros next having accumulated all that so...... good luck everyone else! :D.
Enjoy that Tiramisu Iga, hope you get a kilos worth! :D. See you next week at Roland Garros.
Let's keep this train going, Jazda!.
No comments:
Post a Comment