Iga Swiatek reeled off 11 straight games to beat Jessica Pegula 6-1 6-0 in a final which had been delayed to Monday due to rain in Cancun; the 22-year-old from Poland regained the world No 1 ranking from Aryna Sabalenka as a result of the victory
Tuesday 7 November 2023 14:39, UK
Iga Swiatek dominated American Jessica Pegula 6-1 6-0 to win the season-ending WTA Finals in Cancun on Monday and regain her world No 1 ranking from Aryna Sabalenka.
The four-time Grand Slam winner broke Pegula five times and saved the only break point she faced en route to her first WTA Finals trophy in a match delayed a day due to rain.
The first two games were shared, but then Swiatek seized complete control and reeled off the next 11 with her high-quality baseline game, rarely making an unforced error and repeatedly pressuring Pegula into mistakes.
She said she didn't want the possibility of the ranking to impact her play.
"It did a little bit - it's hard not to think about stuff like that - but actually, when I went on court, I knew that I had to focus on different things," Swiatek said. "And actually, the conditions here that were kind of tricky, also helped me to just focus on my footwork, my shots, and that just kept me busy from thinking about all of that."
The 22-year-old from Poland went 5-0 at the WTA tour's season-closing championship, winning all 10 sets she played and ceding a total of just 20 games.
That is the fewest by the tournament's winner since 2003, when it returned to a round-robin format. The previous low in that time was the 34 games dropped by Justine Henin in 2007.
Swiatek is also the youngest WTA Finals champion since 21-year-old Petra Kvitova in 2011 and extended her winning streak to 11 matches. She improved to 68-11 with six trophies in 2023, including at the French Open in June.
This victory allows her to return to the world No 1 she held from April 2022 until this September, when she relinquished it to Sabalenka, who she beat in a semi-final which began Saturday and finished on Sunday after being suspended due to rain.
Pegula, on the other hand, had not dropped a set entering the final and eliminated her doubles partner, US Open champion Coco Gauff, on Saturday.
The 29-year-old American was bidding to become the oldest first-time WTA Finals champ and to pick up what would have been the most important trophy of her career to date.
After beating Sabalenka and No 4 Elena Rybakina in the group stage, then No 3 Gauff, Pegula's match-up against No 2 Swiatek made her the first woman to face each of the top four players in the world at one event since the start of the WTA rankings in 1975. However, her nine-match winning streak was stopped emphatically.
It concluded a troubled tournament which drew criticism from the eight leading women players for its problematic build-up, with the temporary venue only completed with one day to spare.
"She's been in my mind, the one to beat the last couple years," Pegula said of Swiatek. "She's showing that even when she loses some matches or doesn't win the tournament, that she's still bouncing right back and is playing at a high level every single week.
"That's what a top player does, what a champion does, and I think she showed that."
Earlier in the day, Laura Siegemund of Germany and Vera Zvonareva of Russia won the delayed doubles final by beating Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the USA and Ellen Perez of Australia 6-4 6-4.
