Iga Swiatek: A year since 37-match winning streak started, can world No. 1 go again as she bids to win WTA Dubai?

February 22, 2022 wasn’t the day where it all started for Iga Swiatek, but in many ways it was.

This time last year, Swiatek was not the star name on the WTA Tour.

Sure, she had won the French Open in super impressive fashion in October 2020, won in Adelaide at the start of 2021, and dismantled former world No. 1 Karolina Pliskova 6-0 6-0 in the final of the Italian Open that year, but as she prepared to play the first WTA 1000 of the season in Doha, she was at No. 8 in the rankings and the week before had lost to Jelena Ostapenko in the last 16 in Dubai.

Perhaps she would have been picked out as a contender for the title, although most of her best performances up until then had been on clay rather than hard courts. The biggest names in the Doha draw were Aryna Sabalenka, the top seed in the absence of Ashleigh Barty, 2021 French Open champion Barbora Krejcikova, and Petra Kvitova and Garbine Muguruza, who had contested the previous year’s final.

That Swiatek did not have top billing was evident as her opening match of the tournament against Viktorija Golubic was played on one of the outside courts and was watched by a sparse crowd.

How many watching that day would have thought they would be witnessing the start of the longest winning streak on the WTA Tour this century?

This time last year, the WTA Tour was Barty’s domain.

Barty had just won the Australian Open without dropping a set and had nearly a 3,000-point advantage at the top of the world rankings over Sabalenka.

Swiatek, working with new coach Tomasz Witkorowski, was down in eighth having been beaten by Barty in the semi-finals in Adelaide to start the season, and then losing to Danielle Collins in the semis of the Australian Open. She had only one win against a top-10 player on hard courts prior to Doha and an 0-4 combined record against Maria Sakkari and Sabalenka.

But there were signs in the first month of the season that Swiatek might be going places. Her heavy-topspin game, which had previously been most effective on clay courts, looked as though it was translating to hard courts. At the Australian Open she showed her steel with comeback wins over Sorana Cirstea and Kaia Kanepi on her way to the semi-finals. She later said the tournament was like a “big test for me and I feel like I passed it”.

After Melbourne, she travelled to Dubai where she was beaten by Ostapenko in a topsy-turvy match featuring 16 breaks of serve. Getting Golubic first up at the Qatar Open did not appear the easiest bounce-back match, given Swiatek had lost their only previous encounter, the Swiss is a tricky player who utilises slice on both sides, and has a one-handed backhand which isn’t seen much on the women’s tour.

With a smattering of spectators in the stands, Swiatek was under pressure from the off, saving three break points in the opening game, the last with a backhand winner into the corner. Swiatek had to recover from 15-40 down in her next service game before getting into some rhythm with a love hold and then breaking for a 4-2 lead. Another break saw Swiatek take the set.

Today a 6-2 opening set would likely be followed by something similar in the second set from Swiatek, perhaps a bagel, but not on this day a year ago. Golubic broke serve four times to take the set and level the match.

The contest looked to be in the balance as Swiatek’s opening service game of the deciding set went to 30-30. It was then that Swiatek’s quality then shone through.

She came up with two forehand winners to hold, then broke Golubic with a superb winner onto the sideline after the best point of the match. Another forehand winner fended off a break point at 5-2 and Swiatek held to secure the first victory of a streak that would stretch across the next four months.

Watching back now, there are a few things that stand out from the match: Swiatek’s heavy-spinning forehand and ability to easily change direction on either wing, and her power and footwork, with quick stutter steps helping her get into the best position for shots.

All of these skills have been refined and enhanced over the last year to make Swiatek such a dominant force on the WTA Tour.

Swiatek’s winning run soon gathered pace.

After beating Golubic in three sets, Swiatek dispatched Daria Kasatkina for the loss of three games and then took out top seed Sabalenka in straight sets. Sakkari was next, Swiatek shedding tears after earning her first win over the Greek in four attempts.

“I don’t know how that happened,” she explained afterwards. “I’ve been doing so much work to play well in those matches like that. I’m so happy I made it through.

“This whole tournament showed me that if I’m going to be fearless, I can play [as well as] I want.”

The final pitted Swiatek against Anett Kontaveit, who was looking to win her 10th match in a row but was completely outplayed. Swiatek dropped just two games to secure the second WTA 1000 title of her career and move up to No. 4 in the world rankings.

The Qatar Open was just a teaser of what was to come from Swiatek.

At Indian Wells, she won her first three matches after dropping the opening set and then clicked into top form to beat Madison Keys, Simona Halep and Sakkari. At the Miami Open she didn’t lose a set and served up three bagel sets, including in the final against Naomi Osaka. And on clay she was ruthless, overpowering, outmanoeuvring and outthinking everyone. By the time the French Open came around, she had such an aura of invincibility that it was impossible to see anyone beating her – and they didn’t.

It wasn't until the third round of Wimbledon that Swiatek finally lost, going down in straight sets to Alize Cornet to end the winning run at 37 matches, two more than the previous best this century - Venus Williams' 35 straight matches - and equalling Martina Hingis' winning streak in 1997.

In between it all, Swiatek took on the mantle of being world No. 1 after Barty retired – a decision that Swiatek said she cried “for a long time” after learning - and ran with it in extraordinary fashion.

After her victory at the Qatar Open and opening win in Dubai against Leylah Fernandez, Swiatek has won four matches in a row. Just 33 more to match last year.

But does Swiatek think she can go another lengthy unbeaten run? She says is trying not to think about last year's exploits.

“It was tough,” said Swiatek about her 37-match winning streak after winning in Doha.

“But at the end, I only remember, you know, the trophy ceremonies and I tend to kind of forget that this was like a long journey before I even reached the semi-finals and finals. So this year I am trying to kind of not really think about that because it's not helpful.

“I want to play with less expectations, so just focus on the future and you know what is the next step. So, for sure, I am pretty happy and really I don't know, just I feel like the work I am putting in is paying off, but I want to just continue, you know, not coming back to last year."

It’s hard not to think about last year, though. For starters, Swiatek has all those points to defend over the next few months after winning so much in the first half of 2022. And she also has the pressure of being the defending champion almost every week until the French Open. She has Sabalenka looking in red-hot form, riding her own winning streak of 13 matches to start the season and looking to dethrone Swiatek as world No. 1.

“It’s my first priority, I would say; I really want it,” Sabalenka, who is 4,800 points behind Swiatek told Arab News about the world No. 1 ranking this week.

“She’s [Swiatek] doing really well, she’s moving better than anybody else, she’s tough and it’s going to be really tough, and that’s why I really want to achieve it. Because it seems, like, impossible, but I want to make it possible.”

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