Polish teenager Iga Swiatek, 19, claims second career title after winning the French Open last year for her first; joins Ash Barty, Simona Halep and Bianca Adreesco in withdrawing from Qatar Open
By Reuters
French Open champion Iga Swiatek breezed past second seed Belinda Bencic 6-2 6-2 in the Adelaide International final on Saturday to claim the second title of her career.
The 19-year-old Pole shot out of relative obscurity last year when she became the youngest woman to win the Roland Garros title since Monica Seles in 1992.
The new world No 15 showed again why she is so highly rated with a superb week in Adelaide.
Swiatek did not drop a set throughout the WTA 500 tournament and lost only 22 games in all. She fired 22 winners and made only six unforced errors in the final.
“For sure, there is something that clicks,” Swiatek, who will rise to a new career-high ranking of No 15 on Monday, said of her good form during her title runs.
“Not only in my head but also tennis-wise. I feel pretty good on court. I feel sometimes I have weeks when everything clicks and that’s the effect of the work we’re doing.
“It’s good because I can see that I can play good tennis for the whole week. It wasn’t like one time during the French Open. It gives me more confidence that I’m more developed [as a] player… It gives me motivation.”
Swiatek went ahead 3-2 in the opening set of the final and broke Bencic’s serve when the Swiss double-faulted three times before switching gears to gain the early advantage in the contest at Memorial Drive Park.
The fifth seed then surged ahead 3-1 in the second set before closing out a comfortable victory.
Swiatek also confirmed that she would miss this week’s Qatar Open in Doha after a busy schedule in Australia to start the season.
World No 1 Ash Barty (leg), world No 3 Simona Halep and 2019 U.S. Open winner Bianca Andreescu are also skipping the event.
