Iga Swiatek has joined Serena Williams, Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis on a very exclusive list as she is just the fourth player in WTA history to spend 50 consecutive weeks at the top spot in her first stint as No 1. On April 4th, Swiatek became the world No 1 for the first time in her career.
Since then, Swiatek has been ranked at No 1 as this Monday she hit the 50th consecutive week at the top spot. The first to do it was Graf, who spent 186 consecutive weeks when she first reached the No 1 spot. The next to do it was Hingis, who was ranked at No 1 for 80 consecutive weeks.
When Williams first reached the top spot in 2002 July, she spent the next 57 weeks at the top spot. Two decades later, Swiatek hit the magical milestone and joined the likes of Williams, Graf and Hingis.
Swiatek on dealing with the massive pressure, expectations
When Swiatek was a little girl, she didn’t really believe that it was possible for her to be No 1 one day.
“Because. I thought it was not possible. It’s something that is so over my expectations. It’s a place where anyone wants to be. But for sure, it comes with a lot of pressure and expectations,” Swiatek said during her pre-tournament press conference in Indian Wells.
Now that Swiatek is considered the best player in the women’s game, she has come to the realization that every time she does not win a title people regard her result as not good enough. “After Doha and Dubai, I felt it pretty strongly.
Because I won a WTA 500 and was in the final of a 1000 — it was like a small streak of matches that were pretty solid and I was really composed. But, still, I lost in the final and people were, I don’t know, surprised, not happy with the performance, just critical.
And it made me think that last year before this huge streak and before winning all these tournaments I would be so happy with this result. But with all these comments right now, I felt like, ‘Ooooh, that’s not enough,'” Swiatek explained.
