Mats Wilander happy Iga Swiatek misplaced world No 1 rating with US Open upset
Iga Swiatek will lose her standing because the top-ranked ladies’s tennis participant on the earth subsequent week, however one other former world No. 1 does not assume that is a nasty factor. The Polish 22-year-old will slip to quantity two on Monday after she was dumped out of the US Open within the fourth spherical by Jelena Ostapenko.
She will likely be changed by Aryna Sabalenka, who has made it into the ultimate at Flushing Meadows and can develop into No. 1 no matter whether or not she beats Coco Gauff or not.
The Belarusian has already received the Australian Open this 12 months and reached the semi-finals of each the French Open and Wimbledon, so it’s maybe no marvel that she has lastly risen to the highest of ladies’s tour after such an excellent 12 months.
Swiatek’s season has not been with out success – she received the French Open for the third time in June and has three different 2023 titles to her identify – however the Pole has spent many of the calendar 12 months attempting to defend her standing on the pinnacle of the sport.
That in itself has been a disturbing expertise for the four-times Grand Slam winner who made it clear that she had develop into uninterested in journalists continuously asking her concerning the stress of defending her No. 1 rating.
And it’s for that motive that former Swedish world No. 1 Mats Wilander believes that vacating the highest spot may really do Swiatek a favour.
He stated: “I think this is most probably the best thing that can happen for her tennis. There’s a reason for her to start working on her game again and figuring out what happens to her when she plays against big hitters now she doesn’t have to [worry about being world No. 1].
“But she’s proper within the assertion about defending. We flip right into a little bit of a damaging, we speak about defending, defending factors, so I feel it’s time for her to step apart and work on her sport a bit.”
Swiatek loved an outstanding 2022, successful each the French and US Opens in addition to reaching the semi-final of the Australian Open. She turned world No. 1 on April 4, 2022, and has remained there ever since, till Monday.
But with the stress of defending the highest spot now lifted, she will flip her focus again to successful tennis matches and specializing in her subsequent large goal, a first-ever triumph on the WTA Finals in Cancun subsequent month.