Iga Swiatek, ended a brilliant first stay at number 1

The WTA This Monday he experienced a changing of the guard afterwards Aryna Sabalenkarunner-up on Saturday at the US Open, will seize the first position in the ranking in Iga Swiatek. The Polish player’s loss in the round of 16, where the Belarusian also qualified, left that spot mathematically tied for Sabalenka for this week.

So, the Belarusian debuted at the top of the ranking to see his excellent season awarded, while it was Swiatek who dropped to number 2 in the world afterwards a 2023 where the numbers show that it also plays a very noticeable levelalthough behind its stratospheric 2022. Iga accumulates this year a Grand Slam (Roland Garros, no one has won two majors) and four WTA titles overall (circuit record this season equaled by Coco Gauff). However the great performance from Sabalenka That number 1 was taken away from her after points awarded by the Pole at the US Open, at the WTA 1000 in Miami or those that were not added at the Australian Open.

So Swiatek puts in a first stay at number 1 WTA (only time will dictate if there will be a second) with great numbers. He rose to the first position in the ranking April 4, 2022, after completing the ‘Sunshine Double’ of Indian Wells and Miami. Therefore, at that time she accumulated six WTA titles in her record. After this September 10, 2023, In her last day at number 1, Swiatek had fifteen WTA titles, nine of them achieved the queen rank.

These nine titles are distributed in five by 2022 (for a total of eight last year) and four by 2023. After his victory in Miami last year, he won in Stuttgart, Rome, Roland Garros, US Open and San Diego. As number 1, he won Doha, Stuttgart, Roland Garros and Warsaw in 2023. total, three Grand Slams, one WTA 1000, four WTA 500s and one WTA 250. In addition, she played in three of the four finals she lost in her career: Ostrava 2022 and Dubai 2023 (both against Barbora Krejcikova) and Madrid 2023 (against Sabalenka). In those three majors, for a total of four in his career, Swiatek entered the historic top15 in the women’s Grand Slam in the Open Era.

In the early stages of his time as number 1, Swiatek lived into his second half great winning streak. He added 37 in a row between her loss to Jelena Ostapenko on February 16 in the round of 16 in Dubai and the one achieved against Alize Cornet in the third round of Wimbledon on July 3. It is the longest unbeaten streak on the WTA since 2000, ahead of 35 unbeaten matches by Venus Williams in 2000 and 34 by her sister Serena in 2013, and the third longest individual streak of this century (43 by Novak Djokovic in 2011 and 41 by Roger Federer between 2006 and 2007). It’s been four and a half months without losing a game for Swiatek.

Third-best streak for a debutant at number 1 and tenth player in history with the most weeks at the top of the ranking

Swiatek’s numbers can be seen in the ranking at number of weeks which extended his stay at the top. All in all, they were 75, all in a rowwhich put him in prominent positions in terms of statistics related to that number 1 in the world.

Swiatek has closed what has been third best streak in history by a rookie at that position. Just the madness of Steffi Graf (186 weeks between August 17, 1987 and March 10, 19981) and the 80 weeks by Martina Hingis (between March 31, 1997 and October 11, 1998) surpassed the first stay by a Polish player at the top. In fact, her streak is the twelfth longest in WTA global history.

In addition, Swiatek has been the tenth player with the most weeks in the ranking position of honor along with history. That 75 was just ahead of Caroline Wozniacki’s 71, who until her numbers closed out the top 10 positions in this statistic.

Weeks in number 1

TOTALS
1. Steffi Graf 377
2. Martina Navratilova 332
3. Serena Williams 319
4. Chris Evert 260
5. Martina Hingis 209
6. Monica Seles 178
7. Ashleigh Barty 121
8. Justine Henin 117
9. Lindsay Davenport 98
10. Iga Swiatek 75
TOGETHER
1. Steffi Graf 186
1. Serena Williams 186​
3. Martina Navratilova 156
4. Ashley Barty 114
5. Chris Evert 113
6. Steffi Graf (2) 94
7. Monica Seles 91
8. Martina Navratilova (2) 90
9. Steffi Graf (3) 87
10. Martina Hingis 80
11. Chris Evert (2) 76
12. Iga Swiatek 75
SEQUENCE THE FIRST COMBINATION
1. Steffi Graf 186
2. Martina Hingis 80
3. Iga Swiatek 75
4. Serena Williams 57
5. Martina Navratilova 26

Pending goals at the end of the season

So, after leaving that number 1, one of Swiatek’s goals is try to take it back in the coming months. Aryna Sabalenka has a leading 1,310 points in the ‘race’, the annual classification for 2023, so it will be difficult for Swiatek to regain that distinction, but she still has tournaments ahead of her to do so.

Furthermore, another of their big challenges at the end of the season is the WTA Finals (from October 29 to November 5), one of the tournaments pending his stay at number 1. The Australian Open and Wimbledon is the other two, but also the WTA 1000 of Madrid, Canada and Cincinnatias well as a contest Dubai which changes category between years between 500 and 1000. For the final phase of this campaign, in addition to the Masters, the Guadalajara WTA 1000 (next week) and Beijing (from September 30 to October 8), where he has not played until now in his entire career.