Iga Swiatek achieves feat that hasn't been seen since days of prime Serena Williams

 

World No 1 Iga Swiatek has become the first player to reach nine finals in a single season since Serena Williams in 2013. On Saturday, Swiatek recovered from a set down to beat home favorite Jessica Pegula 4-6 6-2 6-2 in the San Diego Open semifinal.

Following her victory over Pegula, Swiatek progressed into her ninth final of the year. In 2013, Williams made 13 finals and collected 11 titles.

9 - Iga Swiatek is the first player to reach 9+ WTA-level finals in a single season since Serena Williams in 2013 (13 in total at the end of the year). Easy?@WTA @WTA_insider pic.twitter.com/zftSHJY34c

— OptaAce (@OptaAce) October 16, 2022

This year, Swiatek has made nine finals and has won seven titles. Following Williams and Ashleigh Barty's retirement, Swiatek has established herself as the most dominant player on the WTA Tour and is now the face of women's tennis.

Swiatek set to play either Danielle Collins or Donna Vekic

Swiatek had a 4-2 lead in the first set of her San Diego semifinal, before Pegula stormed back to win the next four games and to steal the first set from the Pole.

Then, the rain forced the players to return to the locker room. After the rain stopped and the players returned to the court, Swiatek looked much better and managed to beat Pegula for her ninth final of the year. “For sure the break that we had helped me refocus and kind of calmed myself down.

I’m pretty happy that I came back with a different mindset," Swiatek admitted after beating Pegula. In the San Diego final, Swiatek plays either Collins or Vekic. Collins had a 6-4 4-6 4-2 when the rain stopped their match.

In about three hours, Collins and Vekic are scheduled to return to the court to finish their match. “Both of the players that are playing the other semifinal are big hitters, so tactically I need to be ready for that.

But last year and this year I put a lot of energy in practices getting back those heavy strokes. So hopefully I’m going to be able to use that," Swiatek said of facing Collins or Vekic. It remains to be seen if Swiatek can capture her eighth title of the year today.

Copyright 2022 tennisworldusa. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to tennisworldusa.org as the source