Iga Swiatek finished the year as world number one after winning the WTA Finals, and Martina Navratilova thinks it's going to stay that way.
Swiatek didn't have the year she had in 2022, but she still had an amazing year. She finished the year strongly, beating everybody at the WTA Finals and winning the trophy.
It wasn't an easy event due to terrible weather, but she was the one who adjusted best to that. Despite being a baseliner whose games might depend on the weather, Swiatek handled it well.
It allowed her to rightfully finish the year as world number one despite the somewhat weaker year. It wasn't so much that she played worse but more so that the rest of the field stepped up considerably, and Navratilova talked about that recently with WTA.
That was Iga showing that, at her best, she is better than anybody. I mean, in difficult conditions, she just blew right through everybody. She gets into the points better and knows how to close the deal.
Even so, they all came up relatively short against Swiatek, which makes Navratilova believe that she'll likely be dominant next year as well. She doesn't see how a fully healthy Swiatek will be unseated by either Coco Gauff or Aryna Sabalenka, which is a pretty interesting take.
I’ll be honest … a few weeks ago, based on what I was seeing, I didn’t think she’d finish 2024 at No.1 next year -- I was picking Gauff. Now I think maybe Gauff will pass Sabalenka for No.2. But I don’t know if either one of them can get past Iga if she has a good offseason, stays healthy, stays fresh.”
Predicting these things is always tricky, but there are indications as to why it makes sense to pick Swiatek. She's still been the most consistent player out of all despite the rises of both Sabalenka and Gauff.
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