Further success for Iga Swiatek: 80 weeks at the top
World number one for at least 80 weeks: making the 22-year-old Pole the tenth WTA player to achieve this. The women's record holder is Steffi Graf, who led the world rankings as number one for 377 weeks.
by Johanna Brauer
last edit:
Dec 05, 2023, 01:43 pm
Swiatek had an outstanding season again this year and managed to finish the tour as world number one despite some difficult phases. The young Pole was able to brilliantly defend her title at Roland Garros and won the season-ending WTA finals in Cancún. She also emerged victorious in Stuttgart, Doha, Warsaw and Beijing, winning titles at all three levels of the tour, something previously only achieved by Serena Williams in 2013 and Kvitova in 2011.
It remained exciting until the end
Until the WTA finals in Cancún, which will be played at the beginning of November and are called the season-ending tournament, it remained exciting between Swiatek and the Belarusian Sabalenka to see who will go into the tour break as number one in the rankings. The Pole had lost her position at the top of the world rankings to Aryna Sabalenka after the US Open, but then won the WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing, where Sabalenka could only reach the quarterfinals. An exciting season finale was expected for the two tennis stars, who played for the top spot in the world rankings in Cancún. The 22-year-old Swiatek met the then world number one Sabalenka in the semi-finals and won the match 6:3, 6:2. Swiatek won the final against Jessica Pegula 6:1, 6:0 in under an hour and was able to end her season as number one in the world rankings for the second time in a row.
Djokovic at the top
In addition, with the success of being number one in the world for 80 weeks, the French Open winner is one of the top 20 players who have managed to be number one for such a long time. With an incredible 402 weeks as world number one, Djokovic leads this list with a clear lead over his male competition and already has a lead of 25 weeks over the runner-up in these statistics, Steffi Graf.