Indian Wells: Iga Swiatek - Familiar with big wins
Iga Swiatek is the favorite in today's final of the WTA Tour 1000 tournament in Indian Wells (from 9 p.m. live on the Tennis Channel). Final opponent Maria Sakkari has annoyed the Pole several times.
by tennisnet.com
last edit:
Mar 20, 2022, 01:32 pm
Iga Swiatek was certainly happy to take the tournament victory in Adelaide at the beginning of 2021, it was the first on hard court and a small confirmation of the big coup that the Pole had landed in Roland Garros a few months earlier. Since then, two more championships have been added, in Rome 2021 and a few days ago in Doha, both in the 1000 category. And not in a gentle way: Iga Swiatek showed her best tennis, especially in the finals.
In Doha she only gave Anett Kontaveit two games, in the Foro Italico Swiatek was even more merciless against Karolina Pliskova: 6-0 and 6-0 against a player of Pliskova's class, that was a very clear statement in the direction of defending the title the French Open. But who then destroyed it? Right: Maria Sakkari. Swiatek would like to put them in their place again tonight. Sakkari leads in a direct comparison with 3-1 victories - even if Swiatek didn't burn anything on their way to victory in Doha in the semifinals for the first time.
Osaka, Andreescu win Indian Wells - and the US Open
Anything seems possible in women's tennis. With a small caveat: while Iga Swiatek can almost put a snag on her career when it comes to big titles, Sakkari's record shows only one: 2019 in Rabat. If you like, you have to start somewhere. But the fact that there was nothing more in terms of winner's trophies after that will certainly annoy the Greek. This year Sakkari was already in the final in St. Petersburg, where he narrowly lost to Anett Kontaveit (as well as in the semi-finals of the WTA Finals in Guadalajara).
Whoever will win the title in Tennis Paradise today and thus become number two in the WTA charts behind Ashleigh Barty should keep one thing in mind: In the last two "regular" events, the winner of Indian Wells has then also struck at the US Open. This was the case with Naomi Osaka in 2018 as well as with Bianca Andreescu a year later. In 2020 the tournament fell victim to the corona pandemic, last year it only took place in autumn, i.e. after the US Open.
Here the individual tableau in Indian Wells
iwmap