On April 4, 2022, Swiatek reached the world No 1 spot for the first time in her career. Since then, 44 weeks have passed and there have been no changes at the world No 1 spot in the women’s game.
After Aryna Sabalenka pulled out of Doha, Swiatek is guaranteed to keep her No 1 spot for at least eight more weeks.
When Swiatek enters her 52nd consecutive week at the top spot, she will join the likes of Williams, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Justine Henin and Ashleigh Barty.
OFFICIAL: Iga Swiatek is now 100% sure to spend at least 52 consecutive weeks at no.
Swiatek will hope to bounce back next week
The start of the season didn’t go as planned for Swiatek.
Swiatek, who entered the Australian Open as the top favorite for the title, suffered a surprise round-of-16 defeat to Elena Rybakina. Two weeks earlier, Swiatek picked up a 6-2 6-2 defeat to Jessica Pegula at the United Cup.
After her Australia run didn’t go as planned, Swiatek admitted that she needed to change her approach. “I felt like I took a step back in terms of how I approach these tournaments, and I maybe wanted it a little bit too hard.
So I’m going to try to chill out a little bit more. That’s all,” Swiatek said. Also, Swiatek admitted that she was feeling a lot of pressure to do well and ultimately the pressure was too much for her to handle. “I felt the pressure, and I felt that I don’t want to lose instead of I want to win.
So that’s a base of what I should focus on in the next couple of weeks,” Swiatek revealed. It will be interesting to see how will Swiatek do next week in Abu Dhabi.
