Iga Swiatek earned her first WTA Finals title and the year-end No. 1 rating by overwhelming Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-0 on Monday within the newest in a collection of dominant performances.
From 1-all on the outset, Swiatek seized full management, gathering the following 11 video games along with her high-quality baseline recreation, hardly ever making an unforced error and repeatedly pressuring Pegula into errors.
Swiatek, a 22-year-old from Poland, went 5-0 on the tour’s season-closing championship, profitable all 10 units she performed and ceding a complete of simply 20 video games. That is the fewest by the match’s winner since 2003, when the occasion for the highest eight gamers in girls’s tennis returned to a round-robin format; the earlier low in that span was the 34 video games dropped by Justine Henin in 2007.
“We have had many ups and downs, however that is, for certain, an up,” Swiatek mentioned, addressing her crew throughout the post-match ceremony.
Victory is yours, Iga 🏆<a href=”https://twitter.com/iga_swiatek?ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>@iga_swiatek</a> defeats Pegula, 6-1, 6-0 to assert the 2023 GNP Seguros <a href=”https://twitter.com/WTAFinals?ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>@WTAFinals</a> title in Cancun!<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/WTAFinals?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#WTAFinals</a> <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/GNPSegurosWTAFinalsCancun?src=hash&ref_src=twsrcpercent5Etfw”>#GNPSegurosWTAFinalsCancun</a> <a href=”https://t.co/rhJw0WFIvo”>pic.twitter.com/rhJw0WFIvo</a>
—@WTA
She is the youngest WTA Finals champion since Petra Kvitova was 21 in 2011.
Swiatek prolonged her profitable streak to 11 matches and improved to 68-11 with six trophies in 2023, together with on the French Open in June for her fourth Grand Slam title.
Pegula referred to as it “a tremendous yr.”
“You proceed to push me to be a greater participant each single yr,” Pegula mentioned. “I want I may have completed higher at present, however that is not the way it goes generally.”
Pegula hadn’t dropped a set coming into Monday and eradicated her doubles associate, U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff, on Saturday. Pegula, a 29-year-old born in New York and now primarily based in Florida, was bidding to turn into the oldest first-time WTA Finals champ and to choose up what would have been a very powerful trophy of her profession.
By beating No. 1 Sabalenka and No. 4 Elena Rybakina within the group stage, then No. 3 Gauff within the semis, earlier than taking up No. 2 Swiatek, Pegula grew to become the primary girl to face every of the highest 4 gamers on the earth at one occasion because the begin of the WTA rankings in 1975.
“Taking part in in opposition to you has by no means been straightforward,” Swiatek instructed Pegula.
Confronted simply 1 break level
However Pegula’s nine-match profitable streak was stopped emphatically by Swiatek.
Swiatek completed with extra winners, 9-6, and much fewer unforced errors, 23-6. She broke Pegula 5 occasions whereas solely dealing with one break level herself — and it got here as Swiatek served for the match within the final recreation.
Swiatek gained 25 of 36 factors within the first set, and 26 of 36 within the second.
The ultimate was performed beneath a principally blue sky and with far much less wind than gamers have been compelled to take care of all through the week. And, most significantly, there wasn’t a drop of rain.
Laura Siegemund of Germany and Vera Zvonareva of Russia gained the doubles title Monday by beating Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the U.S. and Ellen Perez of Australia 6-4, 6-4.
The singles and doubles title matches each initially have been scheduled to be contested Sunday, then have been pushed again after a collection of showers affected play throughout the WTA Finals.
“It hasn’t hasn’t been the simplest week,” Pegula instructed the gang, “for any of us.”
