WTA Finals 2023: Iga Swiatek steamrolls Jessica Pegula for 1st WTA Finals crown
The Polish 22-year-old caps a dominant week in Cancun, Mexico, with a 6-1, 6-0 win - and regains the No. 1 ranking to end the season.
Tennis
Iga Swiatek cruised to her first WTA Finals championship with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Jessica Pegula in the final on Monday (6 November).
Swiatek capped a dominant week in Cancun, Mexico, by stetching her winning streak to 11 matches and unseating Aryna Sabalenka to regain the world No. 1 ranking.
Swiatek did not lose a single set en route to her sixth title of the season and the 17th of her career. She dropped just 20 games, the fewest by the tournament winner since 2003.
The 22-year-old from Poland is the youngest champion since Petra Kvitova (21) in 2011.
"I'm just really happy and super proud of myself," Swiatek said per the WTA official website. "This week has been not easy, but I feel like it's a kind of a reflection of the whole season.
"So I'm just happy that I could cope with everything well, and I kind of used my experience from all these years to perform well here."
Pegula had beaten Swiatek twice in four head-to-heads this season. But from 1-1 to start the match, it was all Swiatek who capture the first set in a clinical 27 minutes.
The second set was more of the same as Swiatek sealed the deal in 59 minutes, which should not have come as a surprise.
Swiatek had been 60-1 on the year when winning the opening set.
"Coming back to world No. 1, it's a dream come true, for sure," said Swiatek, who fell off the top of the rankings in September after the US Open.
"I would say I wasn't expecting that right now, this season. I was hoping that maybe next year is gonna be my year, but it seems like you know, just working hard and focusing on the right things at the end worked. So I'm really happy."
At the tour's season-ending competition, Swiatek, the French Open champion, beat the winners of the other three Grand Slams - Sabalenka (Australian Open), Coco Gauff (US Open) and Marketa Vondrousova (Wimbledon).