A year ago, Świątek triumphed in Beijing with great ease. In the final, she defeated the Russian Lyudmila Samsonova 6:2, 6:2. This year’s tournament is of great importance from the point of view of the WTA ranking. A potential loss of a large number of points could be costly for the Pole, because after the US Open her advantage over the vice-leader of this ranking, Aryna Sabalenka, has diminished to about 2100 points, and the Belarusian reached the quarterfinals in last year’s edition of the tournament.
Another rival of Iga Świątek withdrew from the tournament in Beijing
The tournament in Beijing will start on September 25. It was already known that Ons Jabeur, Victoria Azarenka, Linda Noskova, Elina Svitolina, Caroline Garcia, Karolina Pliskova, Marie Bouzkova and Caroline Wozniacki had withdrawn from the tournament. Now, Maria Sakkari, who has not yet recovered from a shoulder injury, has joined this group.
After the tournament in Beijing, Iga Świątek will have tournaments in Wuhan and the WTA Finals, where she will also defend the title she won last year. The eight best players of the current season will compete in it. It will be played in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Probably no one will say it out loud, but from what I remember, and I remember it well, a year ago in Cancun, Iga was asked what was more important to her, winning the WTA Finals or defending number one at the end of the season. She said that she valued defending number one a little more, so it seems to me that this is a decision strictly tailored to what lies ahead at the end of the season. And let’s be honest, a three-week, actually four-week tour of Asia would make Iga approach this goal even more tired, so it seems to me that this is simply a decision perfectly tailored to the end of the season — said Canal+ Sport journalist
It seems that the priority for the Polish player at the end of the season is to maintain first place in the WTA ranking.
