When world No. 1 tennis player Ash Barty abruptly retired from tennis after winning the 2022 Australian Open, the consensus was that the women’s game was wide open and it would be some time before the next dominant player emerged .
In the end it only took a month.
Iga Swiatek, the 21-year-old Polish star, took the reins and immediately left no doubt as to who was the best player in women’s football with a relentless ride through the sport that included a win at Indian Wells.
From February to June, Swiatek won six consecutive tournaments she competed in – the Qatar Open, BNP Paribas Open, Miami Open, Stuttgart Open, Italian Open and the French Open. The 37-game winning streak is the longest on the women’s tour this century. Of course, she rose to No. 1 player in April and hasn’t returned it. That’s 49 consecutive weeks as a No. 1 player.
In a one-on-one interview with The Desert Sun, she said she felt the experience she gained in winning Indian Wells – the second-biggest win of her career at the time after her 2020 French Open title – helped her to get going remarkable increase.
“I have good memories, especially of tough matches against tough veterans like (Simona) Halep and (Angelique) Kerber, every day I played better and better,” said Swiatek. “Sure it has given me a lot of confidence and belief that I can win in many conditions and when I’m tired or when I’m tired and play many weeks in a row I know I can reach my best level. That gave me a lot in that regard confidence.”
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She returns to Indian Wells this week as the defending champion with confidence. She now has 12 career wins, including three Grand Slam titles. And why shouldn’t she be confident playing hard courts in the United States? She won the three biggest events in America last year – Indian Wells, Miami and the US Open.
She said being world No. 1 is a double-edged sword.
“Sometimes I feel like my opponents are trying to play their best tennis against me and it’s tougher for sure,” said Swiatek, who continued her quest for back-to-back titles at Friday or Saturday’s BNP Paribas Open against Claire Liu starts the USA or Alison Van Uytvanck from Belgium. “On the other hand, I feel like I can use my experience and position to put pressure on my opponent, so it all depends on the dynamics and how the game goes.”
The games went well for Swiatek.
Her most recent win, a repeat championship at the Qatar Open, was one of the most sweeping wins of all time on the WTA Tour. She won four games and lost five games in total, an amazing number. She defeated American Danielle Collins 6-0, 6-1, got injured in the quarterfinals against Belinda Bencic, defeated Veronika Kudermetova 6-0, 6-1 in the semifinals and defeated world No. 3 Jessica Pegula 6: 3, 6 -0 in the final.
Granted there was a walkover, but the fewest games so far lost by a winning player in WTA history during a title run has been 10. Flashing the field showed another element that Swiatek has that all great champions possess, a killer instinct.
“It showed that the hard work I put in this off-season and after Australia (a fourth-round loss to Elena Rybakina) paid off,” Swiatek said. “Also, I have confidence in Doha, so for sure it was a great tournament. I used the experience I got last year playing a lot of games on Center Court and it felt like I could do that know the venue and the conditions really well, so when.” I play the matches that I could focus more on from start to finish.”
That could be bad news for her Indian Wells opponents in the coming weeks as everything she just said about Doha applies to the BNP Paribas Open as well.
But what makes Swiatek so tough? It’s difficult to fix. She has no signature style or favorite weapon. She’s just excellent at everything.
Tennis Channel analyst and former player Tracy Austin explained what makes Swiatek so special.
“She’s got such incredible offensive play, but what a compliment that’s her defense and her ability to put her opponents on their heels,” Austin told The Desert Sun. “When she gets into trouble, she has such great athleticism that she’s quick to get into corners, quick to get out of corners and extend points. So she’s an exciting athlete to watch.”
And Austin said Swiatek’s game was perfectly tailored to Indian Wells, so it’s no surprise she found success there.
“Your ball has a heaviness. She topspins off the court with her forehand and that really comes into its own in the desert,” she said.
So let’s add it all up. A game perfectly suited to desert conditions. The self-confidence as a defending champion. Three weeks after one of the most dominant wins in WTA Tour history. It’s hard not to consider Swiatek one of the biggest favorites to enter this tournament for a long time.
If she were to win a repeat title, it would be an extremely rare feat. Remarkably, only one woman has ever won back-to-back singles titles at Indian Wells, and that was Martina Navratilova in 1990 and 1991.
“For me it doesn’t matter if I’m the defending champion or not, because in that case it was always a year ago, so a lot can happen in a year,” said Swiatek. “Sure there’s going to be a lot of pressure from the media and people are asking about it but for me it doesn’t matter because for me any girl can win any tournament and you really have to be on your toes and ready and it doesn’t matter what happened last year.”
Shad Powers is a columnist for The Desert Sun. Reach him at [email protected]
Four more things about Iga Swiatek
Country Pride: Swiatek is the only player from Poland, male or female, to ever win a Grand Slam title. She has three: French Open 2020 and 2022, US Open 2022.
Streaks: Her 49 straight weeks at the No. 1 is the fourth-longest streak ever for a player when she reached No. 1 for the first time.
Sunny days: She’s the youngest woman to complete The Sunshine Double – winning in Indian Wells and Miami in the same year – and accomplished the feat last year at the age of 20.
Speak louder: Swiatek isn’t afraid to speak her mind as one of the faces of the WTA Tour (known as the Hologic WTA Tour this year) to promote the sport she loves. After her victory in Doha, she was asked about the WTA, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year: “Sure, I would like to see the WTA somehow, I don’t know, expand in business, become more popular, kind of define the difference between WTA and Decreasing ATP in terms of prize money difference and also attracting fans. Our tennis brings the same emotions as men’s tennis, so I think there is something in women’s tennis that you won’t find at the ATP. Now after hearing for a few years that we are not constant, we are indeed constant. There are many top players who play great in most tournaments. I think the fans can vote for their favorite and really cheer for us.”
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