Iga Swiatek joined Serena Williams, Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis on a very exclusive list, as she is the fourth player in WTA history to spend 50 consecutive weeks in the top spot in her first stint as No. 1. On 4 April Swiatek became world number 1 for the first time in his career.
Since then, Swiatek has ranked at number 1, as this Monday it reached the 50th consecutive week in the top spot. The first to do so was Graf, who spent 186 consecutive weeks when he first peaked at number 1. The next to do so was Hingis, who held the number 1 position for 80 consecutive weeks.
When Williams first reached the top spot in July 2002, it spent the next 57 weeks in the top spot. Two decades later, Swiatek reached the magical milestone, joining Williams, Graf and Hingis.
Swiatek on how to deal with enormous pressure and expectations
When Swiatek was a child, she didn’t really believe that it was possible for her to be number 1 one day.
«Because. I thought it was not possible. It is something that is way above my expectations. It is a place where anyone wants to be. But for sure, it comes with a lot of pressure and expectations,» Swiatek said during his pre-tournament press conference in Indian Wells.
Now that Swiatek is considered the best player in women’s soccer, she has realized that every time she doesn’t win a title, people think her result isn’t good enough. “After Doha and Dubai, I felt it pretty strong.
Because I won a WTA 500 and was in the final of a 1000, it was like a little run of matches that were pretty solid and I was really cool. But still, I lost in the final and people were, I don’t know, surprised, not happy with the performance, just critical.
And it made me think that last year before this great run and before winning all these tournaments I would be very happy with this result. But with all these comments right now, I felt like, ‘Ooooh, that’s not enough,'» Swiatek explained.
