There was mental and emotional turmoil in the air last night at the WTA Finals before a ball had even been struck. The psychological baggage was borne on to court by two competitors who, having both made shaky starts in Guadalajara, needed to win to keep their hopes of reaching the semi-finals alive.
In one corner was Iga Swiatek, the ninth-ranked Pole who marked her debut at the season-ending showpiece with a tearful loss to Maria Sakkari. In the other was Aryna Sabalenka, the top seed, who imploded in spectacular fashion in her opening match in Group Chichén Itzá, losing 10 straight games as she fell to an emphatic defeat against Paula Badosa. It was, as Martina Navratilova observed, a match in which there would be “a lot going on between the ears”.
In Swiatek’s case, it was ever thus. There are few deeper thinkers on the tour than the 20-year-old Pole, who recognised the importance of mental toughness at an early age, and has worked alongside sports psychologist Daria Abramowicz to improve her ability to handle the emotional hurly-burly of this most intense and cerebral of sports. She had, she said, “worked pretty hard” to make sense of the turbulent emotions she experienced against Sakkari, and had pinpointed the cause. “PMS really hit me that day,” explained Swiatek, adding that against Sabalenka it was “a little bit easier for me to get focused and to keep [a] good mindset”.
That much was evident in the quiet composure with which the former French Open champion set about her work. Tailoring her game to the challenging conditions in Guadaljara, which sits 1,500 metres above sea level, causing the ball to shoot through the court, Swiatek played with greater margin than she had against Sakkari, applying more spin to her groundstrokes, landing almost two-thirds of her first serves in the opening set, and winning a healthy 85% of points when she did so. Helped on her way by a lively crowd – the early stages of the match were punctuated by regular chants of “Iga! Iga! Iga!” – and by some wretched play from Sabalenka, who made 14 unforced errors and won a paltry 21% of her second-serve points, Swiatek broke to love for 4-2 and was soon a set to the good.
For Sabalenka, it was a case of back to square one. Having lost the first set by the same 6-2 scoreline that had prefaced her meltdown against Badosa – and in identical fashion, losing four straight games from 2-2 – it would have been easy for the Belarusian to go away. The period since the US Open, where she reached the second major semi-final of her career, has been a fallow one for Sabalenka, who contracted Covid-19 in Indian Wells and, understandably ring-rusty, came into the contest with two defeats from her only three matches since. With the off-season beckoning, could she find the inner steel to turn things around and prolong her hopes of ending her year with what would be the biggest title of her career? Indeed she could, overcoming her inner demons to prevail 2-6, 6-2, 7-5.
“After the first set, I just keep saying to myself, ‘You have to get through this challenge, you have to get through this challenge,’ over and over again and again,” said Sabalenka, who took a bathroom break at the end of the first set that afforded her ample time to recite this mantra. “I was just like saying, ‘You have to fight, you can’t give up like you did in the first match.’
“After the first match, I just didn’t want to do the same mistake. I just didn’t want to give up again. I was just keep saying to myself, ‘You have to put this ball somehow. If you don’t feel well, doesn’t matter, you just have to fight and you just have to try your best.’”
Her best began to emerge in the form of some venomous ball-striking as she held for 2-2 in the second set. Perhaps unnerved by the sudden shift in her opponent’s intensity, Swiatek opened her next service game with a double fault, and Sabalenka required no further encouragement, swinging with ever-greater ferocity as she threw off the emotional shackles and began to orchestrate the crowd in her favour. Sabalenka missed a flamethrower of a forehand by a fraction on her first break point, but was gifted the break on her second as Swiatek threw in another double fault. Now Sabalenka had her tail up, feeding off the energy in the Estadio Tenis Akron as she hammered serves and fired rockets off the ground to level the match with a run of five consecutive games.
“With the crowd, I felt amazing,” said Sabalenka, who remained erratic but, crucially, improved to 62% on her first serve in the second set. “I just enjoy every second on the court. I mean, I have never felt this support before. I even felt [goosebumps].
“In the second set, when I first broke her, I think after that game I started feeling better, I kind of found my game. I think that first break just changed around the game. I just needed to face this challenge, to keep this advantage, to serve and lead with a break, to keep going, keep fighting.”
It was, said Swiatek, no more than she had expected. “That’s what the best players do, the champions do,” said the Pole, who admitted that Sabalenka’s big hitting and in-and-out form made it hard to establish a rhythm. She nonetheless started the decider strongly, breaking the run of games against her with a solid hold, pressing hard on Sabalenka’s opening service game, and striking back immediately when the Belarusian broke in the third game. At 5-4, Swiatek stood within two points of the match, but Sabalenka averted the danger with some bold serving and went on to claim the last seven points of the match in similarly flamboyant fashion, an unexpectedly summary conclusion to a nip-and-tuck final passage.
“I think I played really good,” said Swiatek. “But for sure I didn’t have a lot of rhythm because Aryna is the kind of player that doesn’t let you get that rhythm. I hit a lot of frames, I’m aware of that. But looking at how I felt when I came here, two days ago, also yesterday, I feel like I kind of won today – 2-1 maybe, because I won against my stress and a little bit of fear, but I lost against Aryna. In the end I’m going to think this is a positive day, and also I can get experience from all that stuff.”
The result, which ends Swiatek’s hopes of progressing to the semi-finals, means Badosa is confirmed as the group winner. Sabalenka will now face Sakkari in a straight shootout for second place after the Greek was beaten 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 by Badosa. Sakkari, who rightly described it as “a very high-level match from both of us” recovered from 5-2 down in the opening set only for Badosa to force a tiebreak, won convincingly by the Spaniard after she opened up a 4-0 lead. The second set followed a similar pattern, Sakkari pegging Badosa back after an early break, only to lose out as the Spaniard capitalised on some erratic play to break again in the ninth game.
“It was quite a tough match,” said Badosa, who along with Anett Kontaveit has emerged as the woman to beat at these finals. “I served well. I fought for every point. I knew it was going to be a battle against Maria. I think I stayed aggressive. I was moving well. When you win these kind of matches, I think you have to do a little bit of everything well. I think the key was a little bit in the important moments I was quite brave, and I played very good.”