Iga Swiatek

Iga Świątek is a Polish professional tennis player, the current WTA world number 2 and the record holder for the longest winning streak on the WTA Tour in the 21st century with 37 consecutive victories beating the record of Venus Williams (35).

Name: Iga Świątek

Born: May 31, 2001

Turned Pro: 2016

Height: 1.76m

Born on May 31st, 2001 in Warsaw, Poland, Swiatek’s father Tomasz is a former Olympian having competed for Poland in the men's quadruple sculls event at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

Swiatek made her junior Grand Slam debut at the 2016 French Open, reaching the quarter-final stage in both the girls' singles and doubles alongside Federica Bilardo.

In 2017, Swiatek reached her first junior Grand Slam final at the Australian Open in the girls' doubles with her compatriot Maja Chwalińska, losing out to the duo of Bianca Andreescu and Carson Branstine.

2018 would see Swiatek cross the line and pick up the first junior Grand Slam title as she partnered Caty McNally to success in the girls’ doubles at the French Open. Later that year Swiatek would claim the girls’ singles title at Wimbledon, thanks to a straight-set win over  Leonie Küng in the final.

After initially competing in senior events in 2016, her first three ITF titles came at the age of just 15 and in 2019 she qualified for the first senior Grand Slam in her career at the Australian Open reaching the second round before losing out in straight sets to 27th seed Camila Giorgi.

Achieving her first top 50 victory at the 2019 Ladies Open Lugano with a win over Viktória Kužmová, Swiatek would reach the final of the event. The highlight of her run was a precise cross-court forehand drop shot Swiatek hit against Kristýna Plíšková in the semi-final that was later voted the 2019 WTA Shot of the Year.

In 2020, Swiatek would reach the 4th round of the Australian Open before claiming the first senior Grand Slam of her career by defeating Sofia Kenin in the final of the French Open at Roland Garros, becoming the first Polish player to win a Grand Slam singles title and the lowest-ranked French Open champion in the history of the WTA rankings.

2021 would again see Swiatek reach a Grand Slam final on the French clay courts, this time around in the doubles. Swiatek and her partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands would fall to defeat against Barbora Krejčíková and Kateřina Siniaková in straight sets.

2022 was a landmark year in the career of Swiatek as she began to assert her dominance on the tennis world. Claiming two Grand Slam titles after wins over Coco Gauff (6-1, 6-3) and Ons Jabeur (6-2, 7-6) in the finals of the French Open and the US Open respectively. 

Alongside her pair of Grand Slam titles, Swiatek would set a new record on the WTA Tour in the 21st century with 37 consecutive victories. Starting with her 2nd round win over Viktorija Golubic at the Qatar Open, Swiatek would go on to lift the Qatari title, take victory at Indian Wells and the Miami Open, win both of her matches in a Billie Jean King cup tie against Romania then take home the title from each of the Stuttgart Open the Italian Open and the aforementioned French Open.

Swiatek’s incredible run was finally brought to an end by Alizé Cornet in the third round at Wimbledon.

After reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon in July, she achieved the following results in the rest of the 2023 season:

She won her third title of the year at the Warsaw Open in July, defeating Laura Siegemund in a one-sided final. This was her first title in her home country and her fifth WTA 500 title overall.

Swiatek got to the semifinals at the Canadian Open in August, but lost to Coco Gauff in three sets. This was her fourth WTA 1000 semifinal of the year and her seventh overall.

The Polish athlete reached the quarterfinals at the Cincinnati Open in August, but lost to Karolina Muchova in a tight three-set match. This was her fifth WTA 1000 quarterfinal of the year and her ninth overall.

At the US Open in September, she lost to Ostapenko and ended her reign as champion and World No.1

Swiatek has shown remarkable consistency and improvement throughout the year, reaching at least the quarterfinals in all four Grand Slams and six other tournaments. Her US Open run was not enough though to prevent Aryna Sabakenka becoming No.1 in the world.