Iga Swiatek's title win at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, superb as it was, still leaves her adrift of her nearest rivals in 2023 on the WTA Tour.
Despite being the World No. 1 - and having now deservedly held that spot for over a year - the 3-time Grand Slam champion currently still only sits in third place in the 2023 WTA Race.
The WTA Race is the ranking table that reflects the number of points that a player has won this season, and is used to determine who will qualify for the season-ending WTA Finals, which are planned to be held in Shenzhen again this year.
Swiatek is in third place on this rankings list, behind Elena Rybakina in second and Aryna Sabalenka in first position. The Pole is only around 200 points ahead of nearest challenger, Jessica Pegula, while Rybakina and Sabalenka have healthy leads of nearly 1000 and 1600 points over Swiatek respectively.
With that in mind, the impact that the final three tournaments of this clay-court season may have on the WTA Race is going to be fascinating. Iga's win in Stuttgart yesterday was a firm reminder of just how supreme she is on the red clay of Europe.
She will head into all of Madrid, Rome, and Roland Garros as the favourite. Her performances in Madrid over the next fortnight will be of particular interest, however, as the tournament is played at high altitude and will favour the big-serving of Rybakina and Sabalenka.
But beating Iga Swiatek on clay is the biggest challenge in the women's game right now, at any altitude, and the young Pole will see the next month as a crucial opportunity to narrow the gap in the WTA Race rankings.
When asked about being World No. 1 for a whole year now, Swiatek reflected on the size of her achievement and also how the experience helps her.
Well, I'm just pretty proud of my consistency, because when I was consistent on another level, it was nice, but this level kind of, it's over my expectations even. So last year was really, really tough, and I felt like this season may be tough, you know, because of what people are saying and expectations from the outside. Now I feel like I just can use my experience a little bit more, more than like worry about stuff. I'm just happy that I'm World No. 1 for more than a year, and it's an exciting time.
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