JAKARTA – Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek is officially ranked number one in the WTA world. The position will be occupied when the latest ranking list is released early next week.
Swiatek got world number one after a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Viktorija Golubic in the second round of the Miami Open on Friday, March 25 evening local time or Saturday morning Indonesian time.
"For sure it will be something special for me to be the world number one," said the 20-year-old as quoted from the WTA website.
Swiatek had just risen to number two in the world after winning Indian Wells last week. However, he was quickly ranked number one in the world after former player Ashleigh Barty retired this week.
Swiatek is the 28th woman to reach the WTA rankings since the rankings were introduced in 1975. During that time there were a total of 184 major tournaments with 52 different titles.
Now Swiatek is the youngest player to debut as world number one since Caroline Wozniacki, who is 216 days younger, in 2010. In addition, she is also the first tennis player from Poland to become world number one.
Previously Kim Clijsters was also 20 years old when she first rose to world number one in 2003. Swiatek became the 10th youngest number one player in WTA history.
To put her achievements in the context of the current best player, she is also the 10th active player to become tennis number one: Venus Williams (2002), Serena Williams (2002), Clijsters (2003), Victoria Azarenka (2012), Angelique Kerber ( 2016), Karolina Pliskova (2017), Garbiñe Muguruza (2017), Simona Halep (2017), and Naomi Osaka (2019).
At 20 years, 308 days, Swiatek is the third-youngest player among the players. She trailed Clijsters (20 years, 64 days) and Serena Williams (20 years, 285 days) as she rose to No. 1 on the WTA.
Seventeen months ago, Iga Swiatek wasn't the star in a huge galaxy of tennis players. In fact, heading to Roland Garros 2020 he is ranked 54th in the world among WTA players and lost in the first round to qualifier Arantxa Rus in Rome.
However, in Paris, as is often the case in movies, something miraculous happened. Swiatek successfully grabbed the title at the French Open at the age of 19 years.
VOIR éGALEMENT:
She is the lowest-ranked Grand Slam champion since the ranking system was introduced 47 years ago. The win had clearly gone through a process that spanned years and would have required almost unexpected dedication.
After winning at Roland Garros, Swiatek was named WTA's Most Improved Player at the end of the year. She took impressive steps in 2021 when she won titles in Adelaide and Rome.
Swiatek is the only woman to reach at least the last 16 at all four Grand Slams. She then advanced to the semifinals of this year's Australian Open.
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