Iga Swiatek reached her fifth consecutive final on Saturday, defeating Aryna Sabalenka 6-2, 6-1 in the semi-final of the 2022 Italian Open.
The 20-year-old Polish player will face either Ons Jabeur in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament in Rome. Swiatek has now won 40 of her last 41 sets, extending her winning streak to 27 matches, which is the fourth-longest streak in tennis history.
Serena Williams won 27 consecutive matches in the past as well, when she won every match from the 2014 WTA Finals until the 2015 Madrid Open.
Swiatek is the first player since Simona Halep in 2017 to reach four WTA 1000 finals in a single season after she won tournaments in Doha, Indian Wells, and Miami.
On her way to the final in Rome, the young Pole lost only 17 games, and she was delighted with her performance so far, even though she admitted she didn't have time to celebrate her success.
"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."
The World No. 1 players also continues to improve. She explained how she learned from her previous matches, when she let her opponents come back into it, while she never let off against Sabalenka, which was reflected on the scoreline.
"I'm pretty happy that I learned the lessons on previous matches. In previous matches, I felt like I was 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."