Iga Swiatek just won another tournament recently, and according to her next opponent, Sloane Stephens, she's the most dominant world number one in recent years.
The American is one of the veteran players on the WTA Tour. She's played and beaten some amazing tennis players, including Serena Williams. She can talk about her recent tennis history because she actually lived through it.
Having had that experience, Stephens is hugely impressed by Swiatek, finding her among the best in recent tennis history. She's about to play her again at the Dubai Championships, and it's likely a match that won't go that well for her.
She's struggled against Swiatek in the past, albeit not as much as some other players who got utterly smashed by the reining world number one. Speaking to Arab News, Stephens said that Swiatek is probably the most dominant number one in recent years.
"She [Iga Swiatek] just won the tournament the other day. obviously she's playing really well, as always. She's our most dominant, probably, No. 1 in the last few years. I think it will be a good match."
It's pretty tough to compare how dominant each player was, but one thing we can look at is the number of victories players had. If we go 7-8 years back in tennis history and look at all the number one players since then, no player has won as much as Swiatek did.
She's the only player to hit 70 wins in one season, with the second-best season also belonging to her (69). Some had a 60+ win season, but generally, most of them didn't hit 60, let alone 70.
Now, this is an imperfect metric because players like Naomi Osaka and Ashleigh Barty never played as much as Swiatek did, but it counts for something.
Since 2016, she's tied with Naomi Osaka for most Grand Slams won (4), so combined with the win record, it's a pretty compelling case.
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