Swiatek demolishes Pegula to win WTA Finals, locks up year-end No 1 ranking

The Pole would not be denied in Cancun, as she engineered a return to No1 by winning maiden WTA Finals title in Cancun.

Iga Swiatek won the 2023 WTA Finals as world No 1 (Fernando Llano/AP/SIPA)

November 7, 2023

At the WTA Finals in 2023, it was all Iga, all the time. The Pole brushed aside difficult conditions and sketchy, much maligned court conditions to run the table from start to finish in Cancun, concluding her maiden title run at the WTA’s season-ending championships with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over American Jessica Pegula in 59 minutes.

20 – Since the reintroduction of the RR format in 2003, Iga Swiatek (20 games) is the first player to concede fewer than 25 games en route to winning the WTA Finals, breaking Serena Williams’ record of 32 sets in 2012. Benchmark.#WTAFinals | @WTAFinals @WTA @WTA_insider pic.twitter.com/UkOeQHBssY
— OptaAce (@OptaAce) November 6, 2023

In a battle of players who went undefeated at 3-0 in round robin play, Swiatek asserted herself early and never let up, winning the final 11 games to complete her title run and shatter the previous record of fewest games dropped since the event switched to a round robin format in 2003.

Swiatek dropped just 20 games across her five matches – since 2003 no player had won the title with less than 32 dropped.

“We’ve had many ups and downs but this is for sure and up,” Swiatek told her team. “We’ll for sure have many more if we keep working like this.”

The year-end No.1!

With her win, Swiatek has also vaulted past Aryna Sabalenka in the WTA rankings. She will return to the top spot for the first time since the day after the US Open and finish the season at No 1 for her second consecutive season. Swiatek had previously logged 75 weeks at No.1, which is tenth on the WTA’s all-time list.

Reclaim the throne.@iga_swiatek is back to World No. 1 on the Hologic WTA Tour!#1GA pic.twitter.com/ufSK9OgWoF
— wta (@WTA) November 6, 2023

A dominant performance on all levels

Pulsating power, consistency and depth allowed Swiatek to keep Pegula pinned behind her baseline from start to finish in Monday’s final. The Pole played with plenty of margin and rarely missed, completing the contest with nine winners against just seven unforced errors, while Pegula managed just six winners against 21 unforced errors.

Pegula was only able to win nine return points and didn’t hold an advantage in any of Swiatek’s service games until the final game of the match. She even earned a break point in that game, but could not convert it.

Swiatek converted five of seven break points and won 22 of 34 return points in total to improve to 6-3 lifetime against Pegula and 17-4 lifetime in finals as she stretched her season-ending winning streak to 11 matches.

She finishes the season at 68-11 with six titles.

More to follow….