Iga Swiatek has reached a new incredible milestone, on the eve of the US Open. Despite losing in the semifinals of the Cincinanti Open against Aryna Sabalenka, in fact, Swiatek has firmly maintained the 1st position in the WTA ranking, reaching an important milestone in women’s tennis.
The Polish tennis player began her 117th year as world number one on Monday, overtaking Justine Henin in eighth place in the all-time ranking of the longest-serving women tennis players at the top of the WTA ranking. The next one in the sights of the four-time Grand Slam champion is Ashleigh Barty, who retired at 26 with 121 weeks as world number 1 under her belt. Monica Seles (178) and Martina Hingis (208) are further away.
Leading this special ranking is a seemingly unreachable Steffi Graf (377), followed by Martina Navratilova (332), Serena Williams (319) and Chris Evert (260). Swiatek, who has been at the top of the WTA rankings for 41 consecutive weeks, has an advantage of over 2,000 points over her first rival in the rankings, Aryna Sabalenka, and almost 4,000 points over Coco Gauff.
The impression is that, barring sudden slowdowns by the Polish player or important streaks by her direct opponents, the first place in the rankings could remain firmly in her hands for many more weeks.
The Polish player’s run at the Cincinnati Open was interrupted in the semifinals, facing a dominant version of Aryna Sabalenka, who demolished her rival with a double 6-3 and qualified for the final act of the American tournament. A revenge for the Belarusian, coming off two defeats on clay against the 23-year-old from Warsaw in the finals in Madrid and Rome.
