Iga Swiatek is the top-ranked player on the WTA Tour, and according to the former coach of Emma Raducanu, Nigel Sears, she's the most complete player.
Swiatek has been the best player in the world for over a year now. She was largely unchallenged last year, even winning 37 matches in a row as well as two Grand Slam trophies.
The Polish player was simply unstoppable, and while that hasn't been the case this year,
she's still ahead of Aryna Sabalenka, who is her closest challenger.
The Belarusian nearly dethroned Swiatek at Wimbledon, but losing to Ons Jabeur proved costly, ensuring that the Polish player will be at the top for a few more weeks.
Her reign has been shaky this year, with both Sabalenka and
Elena Rybakina beating her on a tennis court and reducing the gap in the rankings as well.
It will be an interesting finish to the year, especially at the US Open, where all three will be among the favorites. The conditions work for all, so it could be a showdown of epic proportions. In those circumstances, the former coach of Emma Raducanu, Nigel Sears, still prefers Swiatek.
"Well if I had to bet I'd go with [Iga] Swiatek because it’s probably going to Swiatek, [Elena] Rybakina or [Aryna] Sabalanka. Those three. But I think Swiatek is just a little more complete than the other two. So I’m going to go with Swiatek."
The Brit compared them on the Control the Controllables podcast. Swiatek's consistency in the past year shouldn't be discarded, as well as all of her achievements. While Sabalenka has been spectacular this year, she's only been spectacular this year.
The same thing could be said about Rybakina, even though her peaks weren't as high as those of the other two.