Iga Swiatek, U.S. Open Winner, Is Ready for Global Stardom

Swiatek will have 10,365 points to Jabeur’s 5,090: the kind of clear separation that great players like Williams or Steffi Graf have created in the past. And the last woman to win seven or more singles titles in a season was Williams in 2014.

“That was my goal, to get to 10,000 points,” said Tomasz Wiktorowski, Swiatek’s coach who joined her team in December and has been one of the architects of her great season.

After winning the French Open by surprise in 2020 and then solidifying her spot in the top 10, Swiatek has taken flight in earnest in 2022, reeling off 37 straight victories earlier this season, often by lopsided Grafian margins, and winning a second French Open and — after a short market correction in July and August — her first U.S. Open.

With three majors, she is now closing in on Naomi Osaka, the Japanese star and former No. 1 who has won two U.S. Opens and two Australian Opens, as the most accomplished major champion of their generation.

But Swiatek, who is three years younger than the 24-year-old Osaka, already has one significant performance edge. While Osaka has never won a tour-level title on clay or grass, Swiatek is a multisurface threat. Of her seven titles this season, three have come on her long-favored red clay, but four have come on hardcourts like those used at the U.S. Open.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/10/sports/tennis/us-open-swiatek-jabeur.html