Five years running, Swiatek’s presence at the WTA Finals feels inevitable

For a searing stretch of 30 months, Iga Swiatek was a title machine.

She won the Doha WTA 1000 in February of 2022, then completely separated herself from the field. The pride of Poland won three consecutive titles at Roland Garros and two each at Doha, Indian Wells and Stuttgart, as well as crowns at the US Open and the WTA Finals in Cancun.

Swiatek finished that run with a flurry in the first half of 2024, winning three straight on the red clay of Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros. That startling span brought her 19 of her career 23 titles.

And then, for the following year, there wasn’t one.

Back in June, Swiatek lost her bid for a fourth consecutive French Open title with a three-set loss to Aryna Sabalenka -- it was 6-0 in the decider, a decidedly un-Iga result.

“I think I lost my attention a bit,” Swiatek said afterward. “She played pretty strong like in the first set, but I didn’t react to that well and couldn’t push back.”

Now, once again, she is pushing harder than ever.

With Sunday’s 7-5, 6-3 semifinal win over Elena Rybakina, Swiatek becomes the second player to qualify for the PIF WTA Finals in Riyadh. It's her fifth straight year in the season-ending finale.

Sabalenka, the World No. 1 for 43 consecutive weeks, was the first in and has collected 7,610 points.

Swiatek is at 6,753, and with a win in the final would soar to 7,103 -- within striking distance of Sabalenka with the US Open and two WTA 1000 events in China still to play. The WTA Finals begin Nov. 1, offering $15.5 million in prize money.

After Swiatek, it’s Coco Gauff (4,944), Madison Keys (4,440), Mirra Andreeva (4,059), Amanda Anisimova (3,608) and Rybakina (3,511).

Toward the end of last season, Swiatek served a brief drug suspension, changed coaches and lost the No. 1 ranking to Sabalenka. But her resilience in 2025, her steadfast commitment to the team around her -- in the face of criticism from the outside -- helped position her for an unlikely run to the title at Wimbledon.

She finished emphatically, with three consecutive 6-0 sets in semifinal and final wins over Belinda Bencic and Amanda Anisimova. That underlined her belief that, at the age of 24, she’s taken control of her career and is making good decisions.

“I always pick the people that I thought are the best at what they do, and the ones that will help me the best way in the moment,” said Swiatek, who late last year replaced coach Tomasz Wiktorowski with Wim Fissette. “And I think I’ve been pretty lucky with, like, every member of my team, and also people I worked with before, because from every person I could get a lot and they were like a perfect match, kind of at that moment.

Under Fissette, Swiatek has become significantly more aggressive on her serve, which helped carry her at Wimbledon and, more recently, Cincinnati.

It’s easy to forget that Swiatek is younger than half of the Top 10. The only other Top 50 players who are 24 -- Emma Navarro, Olga Danilovic and Anastasia Potapova -- are considered relatively young up-and-coming players.

In fact, Swiatek is the third youngest player to reach 21 Tier 1/WTA 1000 semifinals, behind only Martina Hingis and Maria Sharapova. She’s already even with Caroline Wozniacki for sixth-most WTA 1000 semifinals since the format was introduced in 2009.

Only Sabalenka (24) has won more WTA 1000 matches than Swiatek’s 23. With a win in Monday’s final, it will be a dead heat heading into the fall.