A whirlwind of events has seen Poland’s Iga Swiatek rise to the topmost ranking in women’s tennis. Iga has etched her name in Polish tennis history as the first tennis player to reach the number one ranking.
The jig was either Iga Swiatek or Badosa would become the new number one after their opening round matches at the Miami Open. This was made possible due to Barty’s sudden retirement from pro tennis and her request to be taken off the rankings. Following her latest win at Indian Wells and holding the record for most wins so far this season, Iga is quite befitting of her new title.
Iga won her first match at the Miami Open in a comfortable fashion. She defeated Swiss Golubic Viktorija 6-2, 6-0 in less than 90 minutes. Badosa would have claimed the number one spot if Iga had lost. She would have needed to win the tournament to achieve that.
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The 20-year-old’s rise to the No.1 ranking began no less than 2 years ago. She was ranked 54 heading into the 2020 French Open. She won her first grand slam title as well as the first WTA title that year in Paris. Iga became the first Polish player to become a grand slam champion. And also the lowest-ranked player to win a slam since the introduction of rankings in 1975. She only got better as the year went by. In 2021, she won her first WTA 1000 title at the Italian Open. She lost at the quarterfinal to Maria Sakkari in her French Open title defense run. However, she became the only player to reach the second week of all four grand slams in 2021 with her third-round win over Kontaveit at the US Open.
