By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday March 30, 2022
The Polish powerhouse stretched her winning to a career-best 15 matches by taking down Petra Kvitova on Wednesday in Miami.
Photo Source: Gettyt
The good times keep rolling for Poland’s Iga Swiatek.
The 20-year-old Pole continues to celebrate her rise to the No.1 ranking by racking up impressive wins as she inches closer to becoming the fourth woman to successfully complete the Indian Wells - Miami double, joining Steffi Graf (1994, 1996), Simona Halep (2015) and Victoria Azarenka (2016).
On Wednesday night in Miami she dispatched two-time Grand Slam champion Petra Kvitova, 6-3, 6-3, for her 15th consecutive victory.
Swiatek says she feels great both mentally and physically even as the matches pile up.
"My body feels great," Swiatek said, adding: "I want to see where my limit is and also how it's going to cope. I always felt pretty confident with my body. Yeah, my mental game also is on point, because I feel like I'm using this streak, and it's not like something that is pushing me down."
Swiatek’s career-best winning streak matches the WTA’s best streak of 2021, which was held by Barbora Krejcikovic. The Pole will play for the chance to make it 16 on Thursday night when she faces American Jessica Pegula in the semifinals.
It has been a remarkable 2022 campaign for Swiatek, who improves her record to 24-3 with her victory. She has dropped just 15 games through four rounds and one of just five WTA players since 2000 to have notched 15 consecutive wins in the same season on a hard court, along with Venus Williams, Nicole Vaidisova, Maria Sharapova and Bianca Andreescu.
On Monday Swiatek will become the youngest WTA No.1 since Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. But this weekend she has a mission in mind. The ranking milestone will be celebrated, but Swiatek is too focused and enjoying her tennis too much to celebrate prematurely.
She showed that on Wednesday night as she locked down her serve to neutralize Kvitova’s return game. The Czech had broken serve 17 times through her first three matches at Miami, but did not sniff a single opportunity against Swiatek. The Pole kept her at bay and attacked from the return side, notching three breaks of serve on seven opportunity to clinch the win in one hour and 17 minutes.