Iga Swiatek’s 34th win in a row – who will stop the number one?

The top spin specialist, who recently turned 21, also benefited from the resignation of the previous world number one Ashleigh Barty in mid-March. Nevertheless, Swiatek’s winning streak is remarkable. She can now look back on 34 successful matches in a row, and this year she has already won 16 sets 6-0.

If you ask Barty, she could hardly have wished for a better player than her successor at the top. “She’s an incredible person, a great tennis player. The way she recently brought this fresh, fearless energy onto the court was incredible,” said the Australian in an interview with the WTA.

But who is the number one woman causing a sensation on tennis courts around the world?

Her surprising success at the French Open 2020, which was postponed to September due to the pandemic, caused her first great astonishment. As a 19-year-old, she grabbed the title without losing a set – and on the way there she dismantled the multiple Grand Slam winner Simona Halep in the round of 16 with 6: 1, 6: 2.

She became a superstar in her home country of Poland. Understandable, as the first ever Polish Grand Slam winner. But the list of young women who have been able to sensationally become Grand Slam winners as teenagers in recent years is long – and not necessarily a promise of lasting success. Whether Jelena Ostapenko, Bianca Andreescu or most recently Emma Raducanu – they all have so far failed to prove consistency. Or, in the case of Brit Raducanu, have to do it first.

Not so Swiatek. Although she also experienced a phase of weakness that is normal for her age, she is the only player on the tour to have reached at least the round of 16 of a Grand Slam tournament since her triumph in Paris in 2020. A consistency that only Barty brought to the field in the last form.

Added to this is her newly won comeback quality. In Indian Wells, she turned a set deficit three times into a win. Even in the semi-finals in Stuttgart, she didn’t let the lost tie-break against Lyudmila Samsonova faze her. A quality that she had lacked under her previous, long-term coach Piotr Sierzputowski.

Tomasz Wiktorowski has been in charge of the Warsaw player since the start of the current season. That grumpy contemporary who once also led Agnieszka Radwanska to the top of the world. Under him, Swiatek once again perfected their powerful, aggressive game. The passionate clay court player currently seems to be flying over the court.