Iga Swiatek may not have played much lately but she still achieved one remarkable feat after joining Serena Williams on the list of players with multiple 50+ stints at the world No. 1 spot.
This Monday, the 23-year-old started her 125th week at the top spot. Previously, the Polish tennis star spent 75 consecutive weeks at No. 1 between 2022 April and 2023 September. Now, she is the seventh player in WTA Tour history to pull off one very impressive ranking feat.
In the past, only some of the biggest and greatest names of the game managed to enjoy multiple stints 50+ stints at the very top of the rankings – Williams, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Martina Hingis.
When the summer started, Swiatek had a strong lead against second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka. But since then, that big lead has shrunk to just 69 points.
After losing in the US Open quarterfinal, the Pole decided to skip the WTA 500 tournament in Seoul, as well as back-to-back WTA 1000 tournaments in Beijing and Wuhan. While resting, the five-time Grand Slam champion also decided to end her very successful three-year partnership with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski.
While Swiatek is not going through her best period, Sabalenka managed to…
