Iga Swiatek, the world No. 1, reached her fifth consecutive final on Saturday, defeating no. 8 Aryna Sabalenka 6-2, 6-1 in the Italian Open semifinals. The 20-year-old Polish sensation, who is after her seventh career title, will face either Ons Jabeur in the final.
Swiatek has now won 40 of her last 41 sets, extending her winning streak to 27 matches, the fourth-longest in tennis history. From the 2014 WTA Finals through the 2015 Madrid Open, Serena Williams won 27 straight matches.
Swiatek is the first player since Simona Halep in 2017 to reach four WTA 1000 finals in a single season, with victories in Doha, Indian Wells, and Miami. Swiatek has only dropped 17 games on his way to the Rome final.
"At these tournaments where we play day after day, we don't really get time to celebrate. Right after we finish the previous match, we have to think about the next one. It's pretty tough. But I know that after I'm going to be really proud of myself. For sure I'm going to have time to think about what I did."
"But, yeah, I mean, I'm just constantly surprising myself that I can do better and better. I feel like I actually can believe now that the sky's the limit. That's the fun part, for sure."
"I'm pretty happy that I learned the lessons on previous matches. On previous matches, I felt like I'm kind of letting my opponents come back to the match a little bit. This time I wanted to put pressure on my opponent from the beginning till the end. I think Aryna was under pressure, so it really helped me and that was my tactics."
0 Comments