ANALYSIS: Iga Swiatek first woman in over 20 years to record 60+ wins in four consecutive calendar years

Another day, another record for Iga Swiatek! The 24-year-old has picked up 60 or more wins in the prior four seasons. This is the first time this has been completed since Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport reached these skyrocketing tallies over 20 years ago.

While it may have felt like an off-season for the Pole, Swiatek proved that she is still a cut above the rest, clinching major titles and going on a plethora of deep runs which in turn has seen the number of matches she comes out on top in continue to rise.

She first fulfilled this incredible feat back in 2022, two years after collecting her maiden Grand Slam at Roland Garros. She backed that up with another major title on clay before overcoming the rest of the field at Flushing Meadows to clinch her first and only US Open to date. In total, she made a miraculous nine finals that year, only losing in the Czech Open to Barbora Krejcikova. These deep runs helped her end the year with 67 wins and a 88% win percentage.

It would only be a year later before she replicated that, mustering up more wins but seeing a decrease in her final percentage to 86%. Eight finals were reached in 2023, which included another Roland Garros triumph and her first WTA Tour Finals victory, defeating Jessica Pegula to climax another successful year. She culminated with 68 wins, while one more than last year she suffered 11 defeats. This was two more than 2022 which saw her percentage fall down slightly.

Not to worry, as Swiatek returned to an 88% win rate the next year, coming out on top in 64 matches while suffering just nine defeats. The tally of wins may be lower due to less finals reached. A suspension which saw her miss the Asian swing was the reason for this. In turn, it also began a drop-off in form for the Pole which would spill into 2025. Despite this, it had been another marvellous year for Swiatek. She won another Roland Garros title, her third on the bounce, while winning four WTA 1000 titles. This included the Madrid and Rome Open, flexing her muscles on clay once more.

The year is set to close out, and Swiatek is already on 61 wins. This is even more than the world number one Aryna Sabalenka, who is being chased down by Swiatek after a much-improved end to the season. After not dropping a set for the whole tournament, she was pegged back from a one-set lead by Madsion Keys in the semi-final of the Australian Open.

While she would not go on to reach a final until June, she was consistently picking up wins and going on deep runs, with her just unable to make that next step. This is reflected in the first five Masters 1000 events of the year, where she made three semi-finals and two quarter-finals, before an alarming third-round exit in Rome caught many people's attention.

She would continue to plug away and accumulated another five wins at Roland Garros. This is an unusually low number of wins in this tournament for Swiatek, who had not lost a match in this competition since 2021. She had been used to seven wins and the trophy, but this year she received a defeat against Sabalenka in the semi-finals and a plane ticket home.

Her fortunes would change with a surprisingly good grass season. She finally reached her first final since the 2024 French Open but lost to Pegula in Bad Homburg. Then out of nowhere, she blitzed the entire field enroute to the Wimbledon title, losing just two games in her last two matches. She took this form into the USA, triumphing in Cincinnati over Jasmine Paolini. A semi-final at the US Open was followed by another title, this time in the Korea Open.

While her season tailed off slightly, all these wins accumulated have once again reinforced her status as one of the best. She can still improve her tally of 61, with possibly five more wins to be added at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, kicking off on 1st November.