By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday March 25, 2022
Time flies when your’e having fun.
Iga Swiatek had just come to grips that she had risen to No.2 in the rankings on Monday, and by Friday the 20-year-old Pole is already staring at a brave new world. Thanks to her victory on Friday in Miami, Swiatek will become the WTA’s 28th World No.1 in singles, and the first player from her country – male or female – to ever achieve the No.1 ranking in singles.
Needless to say, it’s a lot to digest.
“That's why I feel like my life is really crazy right now,” Swiatek told reporters on Friday night after defeating Viktorija Golubic, 6-2, 6-0, to lock down the WTA’s top spot. “So, yeah, winning Indian Wells and being No.1, it was already a lot to to handle. Right now being No.1, I mean, it just shows how sport is going faster and faster right now.”
Swiatek knows that now is the time to continue growing, rather than rest on her laurels.
“So we have to keep up, for sure,” she said. “We have to do the work right now to be able to, for me to stay in that position and play the same tennis I [have been playing for a few months. I think it's possible for us, because we have been working hard for that.”
In the midst of a career-best 12-match winning streak, Swiatek will look to stay hot in Miami. She will bid to reach the round of 16 on Sunday when she faces American Madison Brengle. And after Miami the clay of Europe beckons. The 2020 Roland-Garros champion has already proven to be a whiz on the red clay, which means that she’ll have good chances to extend her run at the top of the women’s game.
Swiatek doesn’t expect things to be very different for her even if the number next to her name is as good as it gets.
“I don't know about people's reaction,” she said. “I guess I'm gonna see because it's hard to expect anything. I have never been in such a place. I think it's going to be a bit different and maybe the hype is going to be a bit bigger, but I'm ready for that. Honestly, it's like part of the job, so I always knew if I'm gonna succeed, it's going to be there.”
Though she’s always represented the game with class, Swiatek plans to make sure she keeps her wardrobe spiffy, now that she’ll be more firmly planted in the public eye. Judging from her tennis, and her words, it appears the sport is in very good hands.
“I really appreciate people being really enthusiastic and really pumped up, because I think, you know, sometimes I'm even playing for them,” she said. “But from my perspective, I don't think anything will change. Maybe I have to watch if I'm wearing clean clothes and really if I'm representing tennis well.”