Stat of the Day: Swiatek, Sabalenka set up first No. 1 vs No. 2 match-up on women’s tour since 2019

By advancing to the final in Stuttgart today, Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka have set up the first No. 1 versus No. 2 match-up on the women’s tour in almost three and a half years.

The last time the Top 2 players on the WTA rankings played each other came in the semifinals of the 2019 WTA Finals in Shenzhen, China, where then-No. 1 Ashleigh Barty beat then-No. 2 Karolina Pliskova, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

That was on November 2nd, 2019—exactly 1,268 days ago.

Perhaps surprisingly, Swiatek-Sabalenka will be just the third No. 1 versus No. 2 match-up on the women’s tour in the last eight years—other than Barty-Pliskova, the only other time it’s happened in the last eight years was in the 2018 Australian Open final, when then-No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki outlasted then-No. 1 Simona Halep, 7-6 (2), 3-6, 6-4.

Before that you have to go all the way back to the 2015 Australian Open final, when then-No. 1 Serena Williams defeated then-No. 2 Maria Sharapova for the 19th of her 23 career Grand Slam titles.

Swiatek leads Sabalenka in their head-to-head, 4-2. She’s won both of their previous clay-court meetings, too, both last year, in the final of Stuttgart (6-2, 6-2) and in the semifinals of Rome (6-2, 6-1).

Sabalenka did win their last meeting in the semifinals of the WTA Finals at the end of last year, though, 6-2, 2-6, 6-1, and led 4-2 in the third set of their last meeting before that in the semifinals of the US Open before Swiatek prevailed, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, and went on to capture the title.