Iga Świątek played her last match on September 5. Since then she has lost the position of leader to Aryna Sabalenka and changed her coach. Wim Fissette replaced Tomasz Wiktorowski, and the tournament in Riyadh will be the first test and attempt to regain the position of leader.
The Belarusian’s previous reign lasted from September to November 6, 2023 and ended with last year’s WTA Finals in Cancun. The Pole first reduced the deficit by winning the tournament in Beijing, and then fought a direct battle in Mexico. The result in the ranking was decided, among other things, by the duel between Świątek and Sabalenka in the semifinals of the season finale. The Pole won the dramatic two-day meeting interrupted by rain 6:3, 6:2, and then defeated Jessica Pegula in the final, losing just one game. She returned to the top after eight weeks of being the runner-up. Back then, the task, even looking only at the numbers, was much easier and practically fully depended on the Pole’s result. Now it’s different.
Last year, before the Finals began, Świątek was 630 points behind. Now she has to score 1,047 points, which means that she basically has to win the entire tournament without a defeat (1,500 points) and count on Sabalenka to win only two group matches at most, and then be eliminated after a direct clash with the Pole in the semi-finals (400 points). This happened last year, but then Świątek was on a roll at the end of the season, and now it’s completely the opposite .
A good draw made this version of events somewhat more realistic, but it is still a very difficult task to accomplish. In the group stage, Świątek will face Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Barbora Krejcikova. She has defeated the American 10 times in 11 matches together, avoided Jelena Rybakina, who has a way with the Pole and a positive balance of games, and Qinwen Zheng, whom she lost to at the Olympic Games in Paris. She will start the tournament with a match against the lowest-rated Czech. Świątek’s first match in the WTA Finals in Riyadh will be on Sunday, November 3, after 1:30 p.m. Polish time.
