It’s not unusual for Iga Swiatek to end a dominant campaign as a tournament champion, but her performance at Indian Wells this past fortnight elevated her to a new level.
The world No.1 overwhelmed Maria Sakkari in Sunday’s final, winning the final eight games to triumph 6-4 6-0.
With her latest win at one of the game’s biggest tournaments, Swiatek has added her name to statistics lists populated by some of greatest ever players in women’s tennis. In some instances, she’s even surpassed them.
We examine the numbers to see how the Polish superstar is re-writing the record books.
0: Swiatek did not drop a set en route to the Indian Wells title, and won three of them 6-0. She bagelled Danielle Collins and Linda Noskova in rounds two and three – players who caused her much more grief at AO 2024 – and dished out another to Sakkari in the final. She has already won five 6-0 sets this season.
1: Swiatek maintains her grip on the world No.1 ranking and with no points to defend at the Miami Open, could extend her lead over second-ranked Aryna Sabalenka even further. She is projected to hold onto the top ranking well into the clay-court season, and is nearing 100 total weeks at the summit, something only eight other women have achieved.
1: After winning Indian Wells, Swiatek has also leapfrogged Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina into first place in the WTA Race to the Finals.
2: This marks her second Indian Wells title – she joins other two-time winners Martina Navratilova, Mary Joe Fernandez, Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Daniela Hantuchova, Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka – and she has won two WTA 1000 titles already this year.
8: This is her eighth WTA 1000 title overall, from 27 WTA 1000 main draws played. This winning ratio – 8/27 = 29.6% – is the highest success rate of any player since the WTA 1000 category was introduced in 2009.
10: Swiatek has now won 10 consecutive matches against top-10 players. Dating back to February 2022, she has won 31 of her past 38 matches against top-10 opponents. Only Serena Williams (72.4%) has a better winning percentage against top-10 players than Swiatek (72%) this century.
13: Swiatek has now played 15 “big” tournament finals – Grand Slams, WTA Finals and WTA 1000s – and won 13 of them, a winning rate of 86.7%.
21: The number of games Swiatek dropped at Indian Wells in 2024, the fewest games any player has conceded en route to the singles title there in 25 years. Only two players – Monica Seles and Steffi Graf – have dropped fewer during their Indian Wells title runs earlier in the 1990s, but they only had to play five matches, not six.
(Editor’s note: When discussing Swiatek’s success and how this was impacting the women’s game, Nicole Pratt said Swiatek’s dominance evoked comparisons with both Graf and Seles)
50: Since the beginning of 2022, Swiatek has won 50 sets by a scoreline of 6-0.
70: Swiatek is now a perfect 70-0 in completed WTA 1000 matches after winning the first set. Of all women who have played at least 20 matches at this level, Swiatek is the only one to go undefeated. “She’s the best front-runner we’ve had in the game for a long time, since Serena Williams actually,” Navratilova told Sky Sports.
90: Swiatek has won 18 of her 20 career matches at Indian Wells, a winning percentage of 90%. This eclipses Graf’s winning rate of 89.5% at the tournament.