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.
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!.
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