Iga Swiatek 'super happy' to regain Indian Wells title

March 18, 2024

Tennis News, Tennis Tournaments, WTA Tennis Players

Iga Swiatek ‘super happy’ to regain Indian Wells title

Iga Swiatek has claimed her eighth WTA 1000 title, regaining the Indian Wells crown with a dominant final victory over Maria Sakkari.

Swiatek beat Sakkari, 6-4 6-0, to confirm that she would win the Indian Wells title without dropping a set and lost only 21 games across her six matches in California.

The Pole won the Indian Wells title for the first time back in 2022 by also beating Sakkari in the final, and is now only the third woman to win multiple titles at the event before turning 23, joining Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters.

When speaking to press after the match, Swiatek revealed that the tournament was not as comfortable for her as it may have looked, “I’m really proud of myself. I’m super happy. I mean, even though this tournament looked like, the scores, maybe I had everything under control, it wasn’t from the beginning to the end so easy.

“So I’m happy I could improve during the tournament. I felt really good on the last two matches, big amount of confidence. I would say at the beginning of the tournament I felt like I didn’t have much luck with the draw. I played opponents that sometimes I struggled with. I lost against Linda [Noskova] in Australia this year.”

The 22-year-old added, “Then I was pretty stressed actually before facing Caroline Wozniacki [in the quarter-finals], because I felt like we haven’t played in a while. I didn’t really know how her game feels on my racket. I just have huge respect for her. This was the kind of match where I had to kind of work through the stress. But then after that I just felt like I could actually play my game more freely.”

Iga’s bakery is sold out ????????@iga_swiatek | #IndianWells | #TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/Kg1QWSiReV
— BNP Paribas Open (@BNPPARIBASOPEN) March 17, 2024

Swiatek may have to overcome the challenge of Linda Noskova once again, with the two on course to meet in the third round of the Miami Open this week.

There will be little rest for Swiatek, who will now head to Florida in a bid to become only the second woman to complete multiple sunshine double’s, after Steffi Graf in 1994 and 1996.

Inside the baseline…

Iga Swiatek is absolutely incredible, having already won eight WTA 1000 titles at 22-years-old! This puts the world No.1 only one behind the legendary Venus Williams already and it is almost inevitable that she will reach double figures, possibly even this year. It is not just the fact that Swiatek claimed the title at Indian Wells, but the way that she did it, beating some very tricky opponents in such convincing fashion.

Iga Swiatek: All Eight of her WTA 1000 titles

The Indian Wells title was the 20th main tour title of Swiatek’s career, and we wanted to specifically look back on all eight of her WTA 1000 title victories:

Italian Open 2021 – Beat Karolina Pliskova, 6-0 6-0
Qatar Open 2022 – Beat Anett Kontaveit, 6-2 6-0
Indian Wells 2022 – Beat Maria Sakkari, 6-4 6-1
Miami Open 2022 – Beat Naomi Osaka, 6-4 6-0
Italian Open 2022 – Beat Ons Jabeur, 6-2 6-2
China Open 2023 – Beat Liudmila Samsonova, 6-2 6-2
Qatar Open 2024 – Beat Elena Rybakina, 7-6(8) 6-2
Indian Wells 2024 – Beat Maria Sakkari, 6-4 6-0

???????????? So, so proud of myself and the team. Thank you for the support and making me feel so comfortable in Tennis Paradise.
????????????Dumna z siebie i z całego zespołu. Dziękuję Wam za to, że tym "tenisowym raju" czułam się tak dobrze.#teamSwiatek pic.twitter.com/i2VjNWEb5B
— Iga Świątek (@iga_swiatek) March 18, 2024