“We are playing better tennis than 20 years ago” – Swiatek talks about evolution of women’s tennis

World No 1 Iga Swiatek secured a berth in the fourth round of the 2024 US Open. She thumped No 25 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-2 in the third round during the night session on Saturday played at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

With the win, No 1 seed Swiatek defended all her ranking points from the previous year’s campaign in New York. She occupies the top spot in the WTA singles live rankings with a staggering 10,695 points, which is 3,739 more than Aryna Sabalenka in the second place.

Sabalenka notably has 1,060 points left to defend at the New York Major as she was the runner-up last year. Coco Gauff, the current world No 3, sits in the sixth place in the live rankings, staring at a deficit of 1,760 points pending to be recollected from the title-winning run in 2023.

Therefore, Swiatek can relax about her safety in the pole position because the outcome of the US Open women’s singles draw will not define her place in the WTA rankings for a few more weeks. She has already amassed 118 weeks as the world No 1, most recently overtaking Justine Henin, who won seven Grand Slam titles between 2003 and 2008, in the all-time list of world No 1s.

Moreover, the Pole is only three weeks shy of Australian Ashleigh Barty’s record of 121 weeks as the top ranked female player. Barty, interestingly, raked up all those weeks as the world No 1 between June 2019 and April 2022 and is already in danger of falling behind Swiatek.

Thus, Iga Swiatek, when she reached the press room after beating Pavlyuchenkova on Saturday, was made to comment on the evolution of women’s tennis in the last five years and the level a player needs to hit to be on the summit.

“Well, I think it’s hard for me to judge the whole level of the game,” the 23-year-old replied. “I’m mostly looking at myself and probably a few other players, you know. So it’s hard for me to judge if we are playing better tennis than tennis five years ago.”

Once Swiatek overtakes Barty in the all-time list of players with most weeks at No 1, her next aim will inevitably be to breach nine-time Grand Slam champion Monica Seles‘ number of 178 weeks.

“I think for sure we are playing better tennis than 20 years ago, because our physicality is getting better, and some other stuff.”

Iga Swiatek

Swiatek, however, disclaimed being considered an expert on the subject of evolution, otherwise affirming her views about her fellow athletes improving every day.

“People are, as general, they are kind of like going forward. But it’s still, I’m not an expert. I haven’t watched, a lot of matches from the past to kind of know exactly. But for sure you need to get better… at the beginning, I feel like my opponents didn’t really know what to expect from me. I think 2023 was challenging because I had target on my back and also players actually learned my game style, so I think you always need to learn, because it’s not like you can keep playing the same tennis. People will figure it out.”

Swiatek notably rose to the world No 1 rank after former pro Ashleigh Barty relinquished the position in April 2022. Henceforth, the Pole held her spot for an impressive 75 weeks until Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka snatched it in September 2023.

The five-time Grand Slam champion regained the top rank after Sabalenka’s brief stint of eight weeks that ended in November 2023 and has added 43 more weeks to her column.

Rankings aside, Iga Swiatek’s next immediate task at the US Open is to beat No 16 seed Liudmila Samsonova in the fourth round. She has notably remained invincible in her three on-court encounters with Samsonova thus far.

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