Time was, Iga Swiatek would have gone into the Stuttgart Open harbouring all manner of concerns.
A self-confessed worrier, the Swiatek of old would have fretted about living up to her billing as the new world No 1, in her first event since that status was unexpectedly thrust upon her by Ashleigh Barty’s retirement. She would have stressed over the swift transition from hard courts, where she completed the “sunshine double” of Indian Wells and Miami earlier this month, to the clay courts of Stuttgart, where the speed and texture of the surface differs markedly from other stops on the European clay-court swing.
The challenge, as Swiatek sought to extend a 19-match unbeaten streak with the eyes of the world upon her, would have felt all the more onerous for the absence of both Tomasz Witkorowski, the Polish coach who joined her team in the off-season, and her sports psychologist Daria Abramowicz.
Yet times have changed for Swiatek, and the pressures that left her so distraught at times last season, not least at the Olympics and the WTA Finals, now seem like grist to the mill of a rise that has gone from strength to strength.
With her 6-2, 6-2 dismissal of Arna Sabalenka in the Stuttgart final, the Pole claimed her fourth successive title and 23rd win in a row, just a day after a gruelling three-hour win over Liudmla Samsonova that marked the longest match of her career. Since the turn of the century, only Serena and Venus Williams, Justine Henin and Victoria Azarenka have enjoyed longer winning streaks. Swiatek said afterwards it felt “pretty surreal” to be spoken of in such company. It is fair to say misgivings have given way to milestones.
“It’s another tournament where I surprised myself,” said Swiatek, who had only four days to practice on clay after representing Poland on hard courts in the Billie Jean King Cup last week. “That I can do it and basically that I don’t need to be 100% perfectly prepared or I don’t need to feel like 100% to still play really good tennis and play solid matches.
“The transition was pretty quick, and I had a lot of doubts, but I didn’t want to really focus on that. I just focused on what I have influence on. So this is another tournament that has shown me I can do it, no matter what.”
Sabalenka can attest to that. The Belarusian third seed, so impressive against Paula Badosa in the semi-finals, simply had no answer to the world No 1’s relentless consistency and focus. What chances she did fashion were either quickly snuffed out or spurned. A double fault at 30-30 in the first game brought up a break point which Swiatek saved with a confident drive volley. Four games later, the pattern was repeated, the Pole double-faulting at 30-30 only for Sabalenka to spray a backhand return wide. It was the last break point she would hold.
The 23-year-old hardly helped herself. Thirty-nine unforced errors, nearly twice as many as Swiatek, saw to that. Sabalenka’s problems began in her opening service game, where she was broken immediately after a lamentable sequence of mistakes, and did not end until a final sorry forehand flew long an hour and 24 minutes later. Since losing to Polona Hercog in Lugano as a 17-year-old in the first final of her professional career, Swiatek has won seven finals in a row without dropping a set. What Sabalenka would give for such consistency.
“It was a super solid performance and that’s what I needed after yesterday’s match,” said Swiatek, who had won 28 sets in a row before Samsonova fought back from 4-1 down to take the opener in Saturday’s semi-final.
“I was pretty tired, and I knew that I would have to really stay composed and play efficient tennis. From the beginning, I wanted to put pressure on Aryna and not step back from her strong serves. I’m pretty proud that I could do that.
“It was hard, because I knew I wasn’t going to feel fresh, but I needed to trust my team and my body… I needed to talk with Daria [by phone] about my attitude a little bit, to stay focused on what was coming and not get annoyed that I didn’t have time to recover. With the right attitude, it was pretty okay. I just wanted to go with the flow and really not think about that. I didn’t care, honestly, I didn’t waste energy thinking about that. The recovery went pretty smoothly because of that.”
These days, everything seems to go pretty smoothly for Swiatek.