- Iga Swiatek no 1 ranking was a blessing and a ‘curse’ that cost her sleepless nights and tormenting days
- She rose to the top of WTA ranking fast since her breakthrough in 2022, where she won two major slams
- The Pole admitted that being the top tennis player came with a fair share of challenges
Iga Swiatek no 1 ranking was a blessing and a ‘curse’ that cost her sleepless nights and tormenting days in her tennis career.
She rose to the top of the WTA ranking fast since her breakthrough in 2022, where she won two major slams: the French Open and the US Open.
It was a season that surprised her because everything aligned with her goals. She quickly climbed to the top WTA rankings.
Did Iga Swiatek No 1 Ranking Make Her Happy?
The Pole admitted that being the top tennis player came with a fair share of challenges. She admits that the famous Iga Swiatek no 1 ranking brought her mixed feelings.
She was happy that, being the top female tennis player for 75 weeks, she gained a lot of visibility, and this helped her expand her fan base. The corporate world also developed a soft spot for her.
This new interest in her by corporates meant a fatter bank balance and an increase in net worth.
Polish tennis player Iga Swiatek. Photo/SKy SPorts
Swiatek lost her No. 1 ranking to her tennis archrival Aryna Sabalenka after the fourth round of the 2023 US Open.
She lost to Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 3-6, 1-6. It was a painful loss that she left the tournament at the round of 16 and couldn’t defend her 2022 victory.
Besides her major wins at Roland Garros and at the Flushing Meadows, Iga Swiatek no 1 ranking for 75 weeks came as a result of winning major WTA 1000 tournaments.
She won the 2022 Miami Open, Rome Open, Indian Wells and Qatar Open. Further she won the Stuttgart Open, WTA Finals and the San Diego Open.
Swiatek followed up her 2022 victories by winning the 2023 French Open and – WTA 1000 tournaments – China Open, and Qatar Open. She retained her previous record by winning the Stuttgart Open, the Poland Open and the WTA Finals.
However, her 2023 US Open loss ended her 37-week winning streak, the longest seen in the history of the WTA. This loss handed Sabalenka a seat at the top, a feeling she describes as ‘freeing’ but devastating too.
“When I lost the No. 1 to Aryna for a couple of weeks, I was kind of devastated, but then it was freeing when I kind of worked through it, and when I turned it around to something positive”, she said when she appeared at the Served With Andy Rodick’s podcast.
Her doping case complicated her emotions in a big way, and her grandfather’s death made it difficult for her to achieve peak tennis performance.
Throughout all these struggles, especially after the Australian Open, where she lost and later lost in Doha after the semi-finals, she felt devastated that she was no longer at the top of the WTA ranking.
World No 2 Iga Swiatek at a past US Open event. 2024 WTA Tour season was emotionally draining for her. Photo/CNN
She confessed that there were moments when the loss of Iga Swiatek no 1 place in the WTA ranking hit her so hard and told herself that she deserved it. She felt ‘as if it was taken away from her, yet she deserved it.’
These thoughts messed with her thoughts for a month, and she decided to process the loss day by day. It’s through this process that she pressed the reset button after the Italian Open, and she changed her coach.
It was a hard decision since she dislikes major changes in her team because it pushes her out of balance.
Currently ranked third, she is optimistic that she will regain her top spot after winning two major Grand Slams in 2025. Swiatek won Wimbledon 2025 and the 2025 French Open.
