Iga Swiatek dominated American Jessica Pegula 6-1 6-0 to win the season-ending WTA Finals in Cancun on Monday and regain her world No 1 rating from Aryna Sabalenka.
The four-time Grand Slam winner broke Pegula 5 instances and saved the one break level she confronted en path to her first WTA Finals trophy in a match delayed a day attributable to rain.
The primary two video games had been shared, however then Swiatek seized full management and reeled off the following 11 along with her high-quality baseline recreation, hardly ever making an unforced error and repeatedly pressuring Pegula into errors.
The 22-year-old from Poland went 5-0 on the WTA tour’s season-closing championship, successful all 10 units she performed and ceding a complete of simply 20 video games.
That’s the fewest by the event’s winner since 2003, when it returned to a round-robin format. The earlier low in that point was the 34 video games dropped by Justine Henin in 2007.
Swiatek can also be the youngest WTA Finals champion since 21-year-old Petra Kvitova in 2011 and prolonged her successful streak to 11 matches. She improved to 68-11 with six trophies in 2023, together with on the French Open in June.
This victory permits her to return to the world No 1 she held from April 2022 till this September, when she relinquished it to Sabalenka, who she beat in a semi-final which started Saturday and completed on Sunday after being suspended attributable to rain.
Pegula, however, had not dropped a set coming into the ultimate and eradicated her doubles accomplice, US Open champion Coco Gauff, on Saturday.
The 29-year-old American was bidding to change into the oldest first-time WTA Finals champ and to choose up what would have been crucial trophy of her profession thus far.
After beating Sabalenka and No 4 Elena Rybakina within the group stage, then No 3 Gauff, Pegula’s match-up towards No 2 Swiatek made her the primary girl to face every of the highest 4 gamers on the earth at one occasion because the begin of the WTA rankings in 1975. Nonetheless, her nine-match successful streak was stopped emphatically.
It concluded a troubled event which drew criticism from the eight main girls gamers for its problematic build-up, with the non permanent venue solely accomplished with sooner or later to spare.
Earlier within the day, Laura Siegemund of Germany and Vera Zvonareva of Russia received the delayed doubles last by beating Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the USA and Ellen Perez of Australia 6-4 6-4.