Iga Swiatek needed one win in Miami to officially become world number one and a 6-2 6-0 win over Golubic sealed the deal.
Seventeen months ago, Iga Swiatek was not exactly a star in the grand galaxy of tennis. In fact, heading into Roland Garros she was ranked No.54 among WTA players and coming off a first-round loss to qualifier Arantxa Rus in Rome Now, almost two years later, she will become the best player in the world.
It will become official Monday, April 4, when the newly retired Ashleigh Barty’s name will come off the list at her request. After a short formal ceremony for the occasion, Swiatek made her way to the post-match press conference where she said:
“The thing is, I never really imagined that moment because, truth to
be told, I was working day-by-day and playing tennis well. But I never had the strong belief that it
can actually happen. So, it’s even more surreal for me. I loved every moment of it. It doesn’t matter for me if there were
fireworks. The crowd was really supportive, they were really excited.
I’m just soaking everything in because I didn’t have any expectations.”
She further said:
“It’s pretty weird for it to be my goal for two days and it may actually happen that quick. For sure it would be for me something special to be World No. 1. I never expected that, if it’s going to happen it’s going to happen that way.”