Iga Swiatek, another Roland Garros to extend his excellent records and a short-term challenge

Iga Swiatek achieved in Roland Garros, at the age of twenty-two, to complete one of his great goals of the season. The Polish conquered him fourth grand slam in the last four seasons and revalidated the title in the ‘major’ where he has been most comfortable in recent years. There are already three trophies in four years in Paris and fourteen WTA titles to her credit. These are some of the numbers included in his success in Paris.

17TH PLAYER WITH 4 GRAND SLAMS IN THE OPEN ERA

Swiatek continues to add to his particular record sheet. After winning her third Roland Garros, which will include a US Open, she established herself as the player with the most Grand Slams so far this decade (four, for the two retirees Ashleigh Barty and Naomi Osaka) and equaled Japanese Grand Slam titles, the woman of the current generation who added the most ‘majors’ to the record. Swiatek completes a roster of forty players with at least four Grand Slams, but is only the seventeenth to reach that number in the Open Era.

10TH PLAYER AND 8TH PLAYER OF THE OPEN ERA WITH 4 TITLES AT ROLAND GARROS

Although, above all, where Swiatek has further extended its status in the historical lists is at Roland Garros. He became the tenth player ever and eighth in the Open Era to win the triple crown in Paris. This is equivalent to Serena Williams, Monica Seles and Arantxa Sánchez Vicario. In front, seven titles by Chris Evert, six by Steffi Graf, five by Margaret Court and four by Justine Henin. In this list, in the French Internationals before the Open Era, Hellen Wills Moody (four trophies) and Hilde Krahwinkel Sperling (three) enter.

11TH MOST WEEKS AT NUMBER 1 RANKING

After her title and defeat to Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals, Swiatek ensured that she will continue at the top of the WTA rankings. After reaching the top of the world ladder on April 4, 2022 following the departure of Ashleigh Barty and her fine work in the ‘Sunshine Double’ in Indian Wells and Miami, Swiatek begins her sixty-third week at the world’s top of the WTA rankings.

She is guaranteed to tie next Monday the 64 weeks in which Simona Halep dominated the ranking, so she is equal to the eleventh position of all time in this section. Her next challenge was the 71 of Caroline Wozniacki, who closed in the top10. On the grass tour, the one that has cost Swiatek the most in recent years, the number 1 will be back in the game and it will be necessary to see if the Pole reaches this first stage at the head of the world ranking.

13TH WITH THE MOST NEXT WEEK AT NUMBER 1 IN THE RANKING

In the same way, next week Swiatek will reach 64 consecutive weeks at the top of the WTA ranking, as she has not dropped from the first position since her arrival. She will match the thirteenth best streak in history, which is owned by Monica Seles. Farther is Martina Hingis (73) or Chris Evert (76), who will open the doors to the top10 rebounds with the Swiss player himself closing them (80).

2023, THE 2ND SEASON WITH THE MOST TITLES OF HIS CAREER

With the Roland Garros title, Swiatek ensured that, whatever happens, this 2023 will be at least the second best season of his sports career in terms of results. He debuted at the first level of the circuit in 2019, when he already played (and lost) in the final, in Lugano. He won Roland Garros in 2020, two titles in 2021 and shone with eight (including Roland Garros and the US Open) last year. So, he left Paris with six titles and an incredible winning streak (which he took to 37 at Wimbledon). He finished that 2022 with eight trophies and this 2023 is his second best year with three: Doha, Stuttgart and now Roland Garros.

FIRST PLAYER IN THE OPEN ERA TO WIN HIS FIRST 7 SETS IN A GRAND SLAM FINAL

For the first time in four Grand Slam finals, Iga Swiatek is down a set. After winning the matches for the title Roland Garros 2020 (6-4 and 6-1 against Sofia Kenin), Roland Garros 2022 (6-1 and 6-3 against Coco Gauff) and US Open 2022 (6-2 and 7- 6(5) to Ons Jabeur), Swiatek lost in the second round of the Roland Garros final against Karolina Muchova (6-2, 5-7 and 6-4). Despite this, he managed to add his seventh straight set without giving up any previous Grand Slam finals. In the Open Era, only Lindsay Davenport, Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt have won their first six sets in a major final. The record, now seven, belongs to Iga.

7TH ACTIVE PLAYER WITH MOST WTA TITLE

With fourteen total titles, Swiatek is ten away from breaking into the WTA’s top25 with Jana Novotna and Simona Halep close behind on twenty-four. With her success at Roland Garros, she has now tied Angelique Kerber as the seventh active player with the most titles. Ahead of them, far away, are still officially active Venus Williams (49), Petra Kvitova (30) and Halep (24). Closer are Victoria Azarenka (21), Elina Svitolina (17) and Karolina Pliskova (16), once Svetlana Kuznetsova (18), who did not announce her retirement, did not play for two years.

WIN THREE OF FOUR FINALS

With his success at Roland Garros, Iga Swiatek has placed himself with a positive record in this year’s finals (3-2, after winning in Doha and Stuttgart and losing in Dubai and Madrid). In eighteen finals played in his career, he is 14-4. That means they won 77.77% of the finals played. In other words, rounding up, three out of four plays.

His victory in the Roland Garros final prevented him from breaking another statistic: he lost title games in Lugano 2019, Ostrava 2022, Dubai 2023 and Madrid 2023, but never two consecutive finals (although he played other tournaments in between), because between the Emirati event and the Spanish won the final in Stuttgart. After losing that one in Madrid, he again avoided a second straight defeat.

A different roadmap to Wimbledon, his main pending challenge

The title at Roland Garros confirmed Iga Swiatek’s dominance of the Parisian Grand Slam in recent times. It was one of his great challenges of the season, but not the only one. With almost no time off, the WTA circuit faces off another scenario: the grass tour.

With three Roland Garros and one US Open and the semifinals of the Australian Open as a ceiling, Swiatek, on the circuit since 2019, is in Wimbledon is the only Grand Slam tournament in which he has not played in the quarterfinals. He reached the round of 16 in 2021 and fell in the third round last year, so this season he will again measure his ability to improve on grass.

Surprisingly, Swiatek has yet to lift this surface at the full level, but he already knows what it’s like to lift a title in Wimbledon. In 2018 he was declared junior champion after beating Swiss Leonie Küng 6-4, 6-2 in the final. Since then, however, his career has been more prolific on clay than on grass, where he has been unable to contend for tournaments.

Swiatek, who will once again defend her world number 1 ranking on the grass tour with Aryna Sabalenka as her main rival, has changed its roadmap this season to try to get to London feeling better. Last year, after winning Roland Garros, he didn’t play any tournaments until Wimbledon. However, it is written in Bad Homburg WTA 250 right the week before the Grand Slam on grass. Swiatek is not used to playing 250 events, but if nothing changes he will make an exception this time to catch the filming for the All England Club, his main pending challenge.