Poland – Polish tennis fans can rejoice. At only 20 years of age, Iga Świątek became the first Polish woman to top the WTA rankings. Since her coronation at Roland Garros in 2020, the young girl from Warsaw has been one of the most formidable players on the circuit. Let’s focus on one of the most popular current Polish sportswomen.
Iga Świątek has just qualified for the Miami Masters 1000 final, where she will face the Japanese Naomi Osaka. Barely 20 years old, Iga Świątek is already one of the most popular sportswomen in her country.
Poland has already had several tennis champions throughout history. The older among us remember the most legendary of them, Wojciech Fibak, who was one of the best players in the second half of the 1970s. More recently, Agnieszka Radwańska (World number 2 in 2012), Łukasz Kubot, Jerzy Janowicz and Hubert Hurkacz are the tennis players who brought pride to the white and red colours on the world scene.
Today, all eyes are on Iga Świątek, whose smiling face can be seen on huge advertisements adorning buildings in major Polish cities. Indeed, Iga is already a superstar!
Ash Barty’s shock announcement
On 23 March, tennis player Ashleigh Barty (world number 1 in the WTA rankings) announced to everyone’s surprise her intention to retire.
At 25, the Australian reigned supreme on the tennis planet. This announcement was greeted with smiles by Polish tennis fans, as it allows their favourite, Iga Świątek, to sit on the throne of queen of world tennis at the start of spring.
“They said it’s possible that I could become world No. 1 [but] there’s no sense in really thinking about any of that at the moment […] We have to stay focused on our work”,
said the semi-finalist of the last Australian Open shortly after Barty’s surprise announcement.
Indeed, good news never comes alone. Ash Barty also made it clear that she did not want to keep the many points ahead (more than 2000) accumulated over her runner-up. The cancellation of Barty’s points therefore allows Iga Świątek to take the lead in the WTA rankings from Monday, 28 March.
Remarkably regularity
Iga Świątek’s promising brilliant tennis career always seemed obvious. During her teenage years, the young girl from Warsaw quickly rose through the ranks.
From the 2019 season, Iga qualified for the final stages of all the Grand Slams of the year, even reaching the round of 16 at Roland Garros at just 18 years old.
However, it was in 2020 that the young Pole made the headlines of sports newspapers around the world by surprisingly winning Roland Garros, thus achieving a considerable leap in the WTA rankings.
Following this performance, she has continued her momentum and accumulated promising results. To illustrate this, it suffices to note that the young champion has not missed a round of 16 Grand Slam since her coronation at Porte d’Auteuil (with the exception of the US Open 2020 where she stopped at the 3rd round).
Her love of the sport, her work ethic and her current form keep her fans optimistic not only for this tournament, but also for years to come.
