How Iga Swiatek flipped the pressure on her opponents to storm back to world No. 1 and dominate WTA Finals
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Published 08/11/2023 at 08:42 GMT
Iga Swiatek finished 2023 on top of the WTA Tour as she dominated at the WTA Finals in Cancun. We look at the key change Swiatek made to lift her game again after losing the world No. 1 ranking to Aryna Sabalenka after the US Open. Swiatek lost just 20 games at the WTA Finals, smashing the previous record of 32 which was set by Serena Williams in 2012.
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A year after compiling one of the most dominant seasons in WTA Tour history, Iga Swiatek delivered arguably the most dominant performance ever seen at the WTA Finals.
As stormy weather in Cancun wrecked Coco Gauff’s umbrella, Swiatek blew a gale through the tournament, dropping 20 games throughout her five matches at the tournament, the fewest any player has managed since the round-robin format was introduced 20 years ago. The previous best was Serena Williams’ mark of 32 in 2012.
Her showings against Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula in the semi-finals and final were emphatic, ruthless, and a reminder that Swiatek can hit heights few others can reach.
"She's been, in my mind, the one to beat the last couple years,” said Pegula after taking just one game from Swiatek in the final.
“She's showing that even when she loses some matches or doesn't win the tournament, that she's still bouncing right back and is playing at a high level every single week.
"That's what a top player does, what a champion does, and I think she showed that."
Swiatek finishes the year with more wins (68), more titles (six), and more top-10 victories (13) than anyone else on the WTA Tour. That she reached 23 bagel sets for the season with three at the WTA Finals, including one in the final against a player who had not dropped a set in four previous matches at the tournament, is testament to her quality.
In hitting 68 wins for the season – surpassing her 67 from last year – Swiatek has become the first woman since Jelena Jankovic in 2008 to record 65 wins in back-to-back seasons.
There have been plenty of impressive aspects about Swiatek's season, but one from her post-US Open resurgence stands out.
After her last-16 defeat to Jelena Ostapenko in New York, which meant she would relinquish the world No. 1 ranking to Sabalenka following the tournament, Swiatek spoke about not knowing why she was “making so many mistakes” in the match.
“I don't really know what happened with my game. I felt no control suddenly.”
It was an issue that would plague Swiatek again in her next tournament as she made 50 unforced errors, including 20 in the first set, in a quarter-final defeat to Veronika Kudermetova at the Japan Open.
What happened next? Swiatek tightened things up, in a big way.
In the China Open semi-finals against Gauff she made just six unforced errors and didn’t face a break point. In the final against Liudmila Samsonova she didn’t make a single unforced error.
“It feels like I can play freely again,” said Swiatek after ending Gauff’s 16-match winning streak in the semis.
“It’s been a while since I felt that way.”
Clearly playing freely coupled with making zero mistakes is a recipe for success for Swiatek. And a nightmare scenario for opponents.
"I think this is what she's doing the best because this is the stress that she made to other players, that she doesn't make unforced errors," Samsonova said after the final.
"Every time you need to do something more. It's not real what you feel, but she makes you feel like this. This is what I learned today."
Sabalenka and Pegula ran into the same tough-to-get-past version of Swiatek at the WTA Finals.
Swiatek hit just nine winners in both the semi-finals and final, but against Sabalenka that was alongside only nine unforced errors (vs 18 from Sabalenka), and in the final there were just six unforced errors from Swiatek (vs 23 from Pegula).
"She played really solid," said Pegula after the one-sided final. "I felt like she really was putting a lot of pressure on me.”
From feeling the pressure of being world No. 1, Swiatek is now piling the pressure on opponents, and is seeing the rewards.
What will be fascinating to see is whether the tactic can continue to thrive in Australia at the start of 2024.
In the last two years Swiatek has been beaten at the Australian Open by Danielle Collins (in the 2022 semi-finals) and Elena Rybakina (in the 2023 fourth round). Both got the better of Swiatek with big hitting and first-strike tennis, which is the approach that has arguably given the world No. 1 the most problems over the last couple of years.
If she can counter that in Melbourne this time around then a fifth Grand Slam title might be in her sights.
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