Iga Swiatek has been dominating the WTA Tour for a long time, and the best proof of that is her number of weeks spent as World No. 1, as she’s now the seventh player on the all-time list.
When the world was still dealing with the pandemic, the Roland Garros was held in autumn, many months away from its regular scheduling. It came after the US Open, which is something that never happens, but it was inserted there because of the pandemic, which was raging at the time.
That event proved a rather strange one because it was played in chilly conditions, which changed the pace of play. It made it very slow, which helped some players more than others.
Rafael Nadal smashed Novak Djokovic in that final with ease, and on the women’s side, a newcomer played some amazing tennis. It was Swiatek who stormed to the final with wins over Simona Halep, among others, and a win over Sofia Kenin in the final got her the trophy.
It was the first Roland Garros trophy she won, but certainly not the last. Fast-forward to 2024, some four years since then, and Swiatek has four of them, winning all but the 2021 edition, which was won by Barbora Krejcikova.
She has five Grand Slams in total, as the fourth Roland Garros that she won a few months ago became the fifth major, with the US Open in 2022 being the other one.
She’s been world number one the vast majority of that time, which is simply proof of how strong of a player she’s been and how consistent she’s been with it.
She’s still number one right now, with 10,885 points, ahead of second Aryna Sabalenka, who currently has 8,716 points to her name. This week, she tied Ashleigh Barty for seventh place all-time as World No. 1 on the WTA Tour.
With this week, Swiatek has 121 weeks as world number one, the same amount Barty had in her career. This number will certainly rise in the coming years because she’s unlikely to fall off.
While her No. 1 ranking will be under threat by Sabalenka, who trails her by some 400 points in the WTA Race to Riyadh, the Polish player is still in the pole position. Being the best clay player out there allows her to count on many clay points every year, making the possibility of her stay extending even further is high.
Ahead of Swiatek, there are currently a number of legendary players. Monica Seles is the next one with 178 weeks as number one. Martina Hingis has 209, Chris Evert 260, while Serena Williams spent 319 weeks as the World No. 1.
Two more legends spent more than 300 weeks as the highest-ranked player on the WTA Tour: Martina Navratilova has 332, and Steffi Graf with 377. Some of those might be catchable for Swiatek, and others might not.
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