WTA Finals: Swiatek begins her title defence with a comeback victory

Iga Swiatek produced a superb comeback against to stun No.8 Barbora Krejcikova and begin her campaign with a win on Sunday at the WTA Finals Riyadh.

The 23-year-old former World No.1 and defending champion rallied from 6-4, 3-0 against the right handed Czech Republic’s player to clinch a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory and her first win in two months.

“It wasn’t easy. At the start I felt rusty but I’m happy I found a way to play more solid. I didn’t feel great at the beginning. Barbora used that. The score went her way quickly. I knew it was tight even in the first set. I had my chances. I just wanted to use them next time.”

“A lot of people screaming ‘Iga, Iga’ no matter where you are in the world. How much do you notice it?”

“I hear it for sure. I missed that. In tough moments today when I heard you guys screaming it helped me. Thank you guys for the support and for cheering.. even though at the beginning my game wasn’t so nice, you guys still believed.”

With the victory, Swiatek has now won 13 of the final 17 games. Overall, she hit 10 aces and finished with 40 winners. Match time: 2 hours, 32 minutes.

She’s now 10-3 in matches at the WTA Finals, a winning percentage of 76.9, equaling Elina Svitolina’s standard for active players, with a minimum of 10 matches. Swiatek is now 60-8 (.882), the WTA Tour’s best winning percentage.