Iga Świątek was recently awarded Player of the Year 2022 for the first time by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA). She won 8 titles including 2 Grand Slams. Her 2022 season has indeed been one of many triumphs. She completed the longest winning streak of the WTA tour of the 21st century with 37 consecutive wins in the first half of the season.

The Varsovian secured her place on the throne back in April when Ashleigh Barty surprisingly retired from professional tennis and decided to cancel her accumulated WTA points. This allowed Iga (number 2 at the time) to take the leadership of the classification. 

Last week, the Pole took over the French Amelie Mauresmo and became the 13th female tennis player with the most weeks spent as world number 1 in the game’s history, all this while being only 21! 

In the meantime, she also became the fourth woman in tennis history to spend over 40 consecutive weeks as world number 1 in her first stint. Only three other players did so before her: Steffi Graf (186), Martina Hingis (80), and Serena Williams (57).

https://twitter.com/TennisChannel/status/1611611587986526208?s=20&t=-JoUTEH2UkI68fRy6P6VfQ

As it stands, Iga is comfortably seated on the throne of number one with an impressive 11,085 points, way ahead of the Tunisian Ons Jabeur (5,055). This means that the Pole will most likely remain at the top of the ranking at least until the summer.

Unfortunately, the Polish champion announced that she would not play in the Adelaide Open. Nevertheless, Polish fans hope to see their favourite player get back well and continue dominating the game. The long-awaited Australian Open – the first Grand Slam of the year – starts on 16 January. There is thus hope that the Polish champion will have recovered then. 

Anyway, at 21, Iga has already proven to be a significant figure in the history of her sport. And the best of all is that she’s just getting started!

Image: Twitter @JJlovesTennis

Author: Sébastien Meuwissen