Iga Swiatek captures milestone 25th WTA title of career in Seoul with gritty victory over Alexandrova

Things weren't looking good for Iga Swiatek in the final of Seoul on Sunday—not only did she get blown off the court by Ekaterina Alexandrova in the first set, but she was in trouble in both the second and third sets, too.

But she clawed back every single time and ended up surviving in an absolute nail-biter, 1-6, 7-6 (3), 7-5, to capture the WTA 500-level title.

And it was a milestone victory—the 25th WTA title of her career.

Swiatek, 24, is actually the first tennis player born in 2000 or later, woman or man, to capture 25 tour-level titles in their career.

MOST CAREER TITLES, PLAYERS BORN IN 2000s (men or women, tour-level):

• 25: Iga Swiatek [born in 2001]
• 23: Carlos Alcaraz [born in 2003]
• 20: Jannik Sinner [born in 2001]
• 10: Coco Gauff [born in 2004]

Felix Auger-Aliassime and Sebastian Baez, who were both born in 2000, are the next two closest players to joining the above list, with seven each.

In a championship match between the Top 2 seeds at the WTA 500 event, the No. 2-seeded Alexandrova came out swinging, hitting almost three times as many winners as unforced errors—eight to three—to cruise through the first set against the No. 1-seeded Swiatek in just 31 minutes.

From there, Swiatek was constantly on the brink of defeat—not only did she have to serve to stay in the match twice in the second set, at 4-5 and 5-6, but she was two points away from going out in both of those games. Then, after she snuck out the second set in a tie-break, Alexandrova again stormed ahead, jumping out to a 3-1 lead in the third set—she even had two break points at 4-all that would've given her a chance to serve for it.

But Swiatek came through in all of those moments, eventually breaking Alexandrova one last time in the very last game of the match to finally close it out after two hours and 43 grueling minutes on court.

She ripped one last crosscourt forehand winner on match point.

And there's some icing on the cake for Swiatek, too—her victory over Alexandrova was her 57th win of the year, breaking a tie with Aryna Sabalenka for most wins on the women's tour this year.

Swiatek is now 57-13 in 2025, while Sabalenka is 56-10.

Among all players, women and men, they're in second and third place for most wins this year, after Alcaraz, who's currently 61-7 on the season.