Iga Swiatek storms to WTA Finals title, clinches year-end No. 1 ranking for second year in a row

Iga Swiatek has won the WTA Finals in Cancun, storming past Jessica Pegula in the final, 6-1, 6-0, to capture the title at the season-ending championships for the first time in her career.

It was actually the most lopsided final in WTA Finals history, which dates back to 1972. Until today, the fewest games dropped by a winner in the final was two, with Martina Navratilova defeating Chris Evert in the 1983 final, 6-2, 6-0, and Kim Clijsters beating Amelie Mauresmo in the 2003 final, also by a 6-2, 6-0 scoreline.

Swiatek dropped a total of only 20 games all week, a new record for fewest games dropped en route to the WTA Finals title since it switched to round-robin format in 2003, shattering Serena Williams' previous record of 32 in 2012. She also became the first player to win the event without dropping a set since Serena that same year.

And by winning the title, Swiatek is now going to finish as year-end No. 1 on the WTA rankings for the second straight year, the youngest player to do that since Caroline Wozniacki in 2010 and 2011.

The 22-year-old Pole had spent 75 straight weeks at No. 1 between April 2022 and September 2023, but then lost her top ranking to Aryna Sabalenka after the US Open and came into Cancun ranked No. 2—but she’ll take it back when the new WTA rankings come out.

Given their recent history, not many people expected such a lopsided match on Monday—not only had Pegula won two of their three previous meetings this year, at United Cup in January and in Montreal in August, but the American hadn’t dropped a set en route to the WTA Finals final either, even taking out No. 4 Elena Rybakina, No. 3 Coco Gauff and outgoing No. 1 Sabalenka along the way.

But after the two traded holds to start the match it was one-way traffic for Swiatek, who reeled off 11 games in a row from 1-all in the first set to completely run away with it, fighting off the only break point she faced in the match, converting five of her own seven break chances and finishing with nine winners to just seven unforced errors, and wrapping it up after just 59 minutes on court.

Swiatek finishes her season with six titles—one Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, the WTA Finals title, one WTA 1000 in Beijing, two WTA 500s in Doha and Stuttgart and a WTA 250 in Warsaw. She also finishes with a 68-11 win-loss record, those 68 wins being the most for a woman in a single season since Serena piled up 78 in 2013.

The 22-year-old also ends 2023 on an 11-match winning streak, having gone 6-0 to win the title in Beijing and 5-0 en route to the title in Cancun. She only lost one set in those 11 matches.