Iga Świątek was largely favourite in Sunday’s final in Indian Wells, and she made no mistake.
The world number 1 defeated the Greek Maria Sakkari in straight sets (6-4; 6-0) to win an 8th Masters 1000 and comfort her place on top of the charts. To achieve this, Iga dominated the world number 9 in style, giving a feeling of being simply unstoppable.
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All started well for the Varsovian who took an early comfortable lead thanks to a break. (3-0) in just 15 minutes. This is when Sakkari reacted. After a fiercely fought fourth game, the Greek managed to break back and the final was really about to start (3-3). At 4-4, Swiątek showed why she has been dominating the WTA tour for several years, displaying a breathtaking level of tennis that allowed her to break and seal the first set to her advantage (6-4).
Nobody yet knew about it, but the point of no return was already reached at that point. The second set could be described as a tennis lesson from the Polish champion who produced one of her classic “bagels”, denying her opponents the possibility to win a single more game (6-0).
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This victory confirms Iga’s outstanding form and her reign on top of the WTA tour. The Pole also continues to write the history of her sport, reaching new significant milestones with every passing week, making her already one of the greats of the game at only 22.
By mid-April, she will have taken over Linday Davenport in the prestigious all-time ranking of WTA players with the most weeks as world number 1. The American held the spot for 98 weeks, while Świątek is already mathematically assured of reaching and exceeding the symbolic threshold of 100 weeks by the beginning of May. By doing so, Świątek will be ranked 9th in the historical classification mentioned above. Her next target will then become the Belgian Justine Henin, who spent an impressive 117 weeks as number 1.
Image: X (@RelevantTennis)
Author: Maria Byczynski
