Eighteen months ago, when Iga Swiatek stunned the tennis world by becoming the lowest-ranked player in history to win Roland Garros, she declared herself on a mission to halt the revolving door of female champions and bring consistency to the women’s game.
On Sunday in Indian Wells, Swiatek moved a step closer to that goal, defeating Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-1 to claim the second biggest title of her career and reach a career-high ranking of No 2 in the world, equalling the achievement of her retired compatriot Aga Radwanska. She has now won each of her past five finals, a sequence that dates back to that momentous autumn afternoon in Paris in 2020, and three of those victories have come on hard courts, belying notions of the 20-year-old as an out-and-out dirtballer. This was her 11th consecutive victory and second successive WTA 1000 crown, following her emphatic run to the Qatar Open title last month, and she now has a tour-leading 20 wins this season.
If the numbers underline Swiatek’s gathering momentum under the guidance of new coach Tomasz Witkorowski, who has encouraged her to complement her formidable defensive skills with a more attacking edge, the manner in which she greeted the win felt equally significant. As she smoked a forehand into the corner and hurled her racket skywards, a leaping bundle of high-pitched jubilation and frenetic fist pumps, the mind wandered back a month to Doha, where she marked her thumping win over Anett Kontaveit in identical fashion. There is no clearer sign of a serial winner than a signature celebration. With the clay-court season just around the corner, it is a sight that could become increasingly familiar.
“Winning after playing so well in Doha is giving me a lot of confidence and belief,” said Swiatek, who fought her way back from a set down in three consecutive rounds en route to the final. “I wouldn’t think of myself as someone who’s ready to play two tournaments in a row and win [them]. For sure, hard work is paying off.
“The last couple of years, you can see by the results that [the WTA Tour] is pretty unpredictable. I think it was easier for me, because of that, to come up. But I want to stay here and be that player who is consistent… I’m just focusing on myself and what I want to achieve. For sure, consistency is one of the things.”
Plagued by blustery winds and pockmarked by mistakes, it was by no means the prettiest of finals. The first set alone featured 10 double faults, shared equally between the two women, and errors flowed from both sides of the net as seven of the opening 10 games went against serve. But Swiatek, helped by her greater spin and margin, was the quicker to come to terms with the conditions – and the nerves that beset both players – and her greater steadiness and willingness to attack the second serve proved particularly telling. She will not lose any sleep over the aesthetics of the contest.
“I kind of had to win ugly because I felt like sometimes the ball was not going in the direction I wanted,” said Swiatek. “It was pretty hard to play with precision today. You always want to see the best final that’s possible, but in these conditions it was pretty hard to play tactically as I wanted, so in the end I was just focusing on playing in.
“You could see that we were, at the beginning, a little bit stressed, and the wind was also not helping. But I’m pretty glad that I played better and better every game, and I managed to somehow find a little bit of balance even in these conditions.”
For Sakkari, the defeat marked a deflating comedown following her emotional semi-final win over defending champion Paula Badosa. On a day when making balls was the imperative, the Greek failed to find her trademark consistency off the ground and struggled on serve, winning just five points on her second delivery. It has nonetheless been a fine tournament for the Greek, who will move up to third in the world rankings despite suffering her second successive reversal in a month at the hands of Swiatek, against whom she had previously held a 3-0 record.
“It wasn’t my day,” said Sakkari. “There’s not much I can say about the way I played. I think there wasn’t like a clear plan. There was a clear plan from my team, but I was not executing it the way I wanted.
“She was hitting very deep and close to the lines. With the wind, it was tough for me. But I was not moving the way I wanted. I was not playing the way I was playing the last few days.
“I don’t think she played lights-out tennis. She played very solid. She did what she had to do to beat me. I think her performance was better in Doha than today. It was just that I did not give enough. I was not a good opponent today.”