A real demonstration. Iga Swiatek has been simply unstoppable over the past few weeks. Opposed to Naomi Osaka, this Saturday in the final of the Miami tournament, the one who will become the new world number 1 next Monday was carried by tenfold energy and confidence in Florida. In the final, the Pole did not concede the slightest break point, she chained winning shots and almost white games, to end with a “donut” which came to sanction Osaka’s lack of combativeness in the second act (6 -4, 6-0).
A final full of control for the one who wanted to give even more scope to this new status of boss of the circuit which follows the surprise announcement of the retirement of Australian Ashleigh Barty. At the end of the final, she wanted to pay tribute to a Naomi Osaka clearly on an upward slope. “When I saw you win all these matches, I never imagined at the time that I would be called upon to play such an important one against you. You are an inspiration and the sport is better off with you,” said Swiatek, who also called on neighboring Ukraine, which is fighting a Russian invasion, to “stay strong”.
The 20-year-old player, who managed the “sunshine double” (doubled Indian Wells / Miami), like Steffi Graff, Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka before her, happens to be the youngest of the four. And in fact, she is promised a bright future.
It’s even more than a double since she had won the Qatar tournament before joining the United States. Revealed by her triumph at Roland-Garros in 2020, Swiatek is having an almost perfect first quarter of 2022. In the wake of her semi-final loss at the Australian Open, then 8th in the world, she gained momentum to reach the peaks of the circuit in two months, driven by a series of 17 victories. A real phenomenon…