‘Unstoppable’: Tennis world loses it over ‘unreal’ Iga Swiatek feat
Iga Świątek has extended her extraordinary winning streak after a ruthless display against Bianca Andreescu in the Italian Open quarter-finals.
If there were any lingering doubts about who the new dominant force is in women’s tennis, Swiatek put them to rest with another incredible performance.
The Pole hammered 2019 US Open champion Andreescu 7-6 (7-2) 6-0 to reach the semi-finals in Rome and extend her winning streak to 26 matches.
Only three women – the Williams sisters Venus and Serena, plus Justine Henin have longer WTA win streaks since 2000.
The sport was shocked when Australian Ash Barty announced her sudden and immediate retirement while holding the No.1 ranking two months ago.
With Serena Williams not having played in nearly a year, there were plenty of questions about who might step up and assert themselves as the new woman to beat.
Since February, nobody has beaten Swiatek, who assumed the No.1 spot by default when Barty removed herself from the rankings.
Considering her prowess on hard courts, the often-injured Andreescu has been tossed around as a potential No.1 too.
But Swiatek slowly wore the Canadian down in a lengthy first set as she dictated the tiebreaker by moving her opponent from side to side.
In a brutal second set display, Swiatek appeared to find another gear as she blew her hapless Canadian rival off the court, with Andreescu not managing to win a single game.
Extraordinarily, it’s the 13th time already this year that Swiatek has managed to ‘bagel’ an opponent during a set.
