Will Iga Swiatek Emerge As The Dominant Player In 2024?

Ever since the exit of Serena Williams, the women’s field around the WTA circuit has had an open look. There really has been no dominant star, the players at the No. 1 spot in the rankings have kept changing routinely and the number of Grand Slam titles have been shared over the last few years by a number of contestants.

Australia’s Ashleigh Barty did give the impression that she could be a dominant player winning three Grand Slams and one WTA Tour title between 2019 to 2022. But she suddenly anNo.unced her retirement from the game in March last year just two months after her Australian Open title and still ranked No. 1 at the time.

That again gave the field a rather open look but if there is one woman who is emerging as a dominant player it is Iga Swiatek. For one thing she has a really power packed game that stands out. Secondly being just 22 she has age on her side. And third she already has the record to back this claim – three French Opens, one US Open and one ATP Tour title which she notched up last month.

Swiatek became the first Polish player, male or female, to reach the No. 1 ranking following the retirement of Barty in April last year. Since then she accumulated a 37-match winning streak, the longest on the WTA Tour in the 21st Century. With titles at the French Open and the US Open she finished last year as the dominant No. 1. This year while defending her French Open title she also went to win her maiden WTA Tour final.

What makes Swiatek a feared opponent is her ruthless approach. During her French Open title run in 2020 when she had just turned 19 she did not lose more than five games in any singles match. Last month at the season ending WTA Tour finals she won the title without dropping a set becoming the first player to do so since Serena in 2012.

She also dropped just 20 games throughout the entire tournament, the fewest since the introduction of the round robin format in 2003 while also beating Serena’s record of 32 overall games dropped. She also beat the record for games lost in a final which previously had been held by Martina Navratilova in 1983 and Kim Clisters in 2003 (two each).

In the final against a tough opponent in fifth ranked Jessica Pagula Swiatek lost only one game and reclaimed the top ranking and became the year end No. 1 for the second season in a row.

But despite her skilful all court playing style Swiatek has not had things her own way on the circuit. In between she has lost her No. 1 ranking more than once. At this year’s US Open her fourth round loss to Jelena Ostapenko ended her run at the top. She however had the satisfaction of being No.1 for 75 weeks, the third longest streak in the Open era among players in their first stint as the top player behind only Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis.

Having finished both 2022 and 2023 as the year end No. 1 leads to the inevitable question – can Swiatek emerge as the clearly dominant player in 2024? It is a tight, highly competitive and as I said still an open field thanks to the presence of several players who have the calibre and the credentials to become No.1.

Some of them have already been on the pedestal. Aryna Sabalenka for example was No. 1 for a short while this year. The 25-year-old Belarusian won the Australian Open this year and was a finalist at the US Open. Currently ranked No. 2 she is hot on the heels of Swiatek just around 200 points behind.

Coco Gauff lived up to her early promise by winning the US Open this year besides being a finalist at the French Open last year. The 19-year-old American is ranked No. 3 and bids fair to have 2024 as her breakthrough year given the way her game has improved and with age on her side.

Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina who won Wimbledon last year and was a finalist at the Australian Open this year is currently ranked No. 4. Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur reached a career high ranking of No. 2 in 2022. Over the last two years she has been a Wimbledon finalist twice and a US Open finalist once.

Marketa Vondrousova is a fast-rising Czech player, the ultimate proof being the first unseeded player to win Wimbledon this year. ANo.ther Czech player Barbora Krejcikova besides winning the French Open in 2021 has a career high ranking of No. 2 in 2022. There is a third Czech player – Karolina Muchova – who is clearly on her way up. She was a finalist at the French Open and a semifinalist at the US Open this year.

The number of contestants vying for top honours makes the women’s field interesting. It remains to be seen whether it remains an open field next year or whether Swiatek – or anyone else for that matter – can surge ahead and emerge as the dominant player.