The numbers — really, one number — would suggest that 2023 in women’s tennis ended just as it began, with Iga Swiatek at the top of the rankings.
For eight days at the WTA Tour Finals in Cancun, through wind and rain, an unpredictable tennis court and a hot mess of a tournament, Swiatek swatted aside all her opponents, finishing off the tournament and the year with an emphatic 6-1, 6-0 demolition of Jessica Pegula of the United States in Monday’s final. With the win, Swiatek reclaimed the No 1 ranking from Aryna Sabalenka, who had taken it from the Pole after the U.S. Open but held it for just under two months.
Sabalenka and Pegula, and Coco Gauff and Ons Jabeur and Marketa Vondrousova all fell victim to the new and improved Swiatek, a calmer, less rushed, and more patient player with an arsenal of strokes suddenly as efficient as they are frightening. Which lethal forehand do you like more? The driving crosscourt one that sends opponents scurrying for the corner? The whippy, looping one that bounces up to their eyes? Or the open-stance, inside-out blast down the line? All come packed with a surety and confidence that was fleeting earlier in the year.
Iga Swiatek’s forehand has been a potent weapon (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
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