Iga Swiatek thrashes Jessica Pegula at WTA Finals to end year as world No1

Swiatek ends a season straight season as world No1
Dominant: Swiatek swatted Pegula aside in Mexico
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Iga Swiatek will end the year as world No1 after defeating Jessica Pegula in just under hour in a thoroughly one-sided end to the WTA Finals in Cancun.

The event has been one of controversy with players questioning the quality of the court and the decision to play there in often dire weather conditions, which saw the event drag into another day on Monday.

But there was no such drama come the final as Swiatek swatted aside her American opponent 6-1, 6-0 in the space of a mere 59 minutes.

It means the 22-year-old eclipses Aryna Sabalenka in the race to be the world’s top player at the end of the current season.

“I want to thank my team, who have been with me for the whole season,” said the Pole, who at 22 is the youngest winner of the WTA Finals in 12 years.

“We’ve had many ups and downs but this is for sure an up, and we’ll have many more if we keep working like that.”

The final had been a match-up between the event’s two star players with neither having dropped a set up to this point.

But hopes that it might prove an end-of-season thriller proved unfounded as Swiatek raced to a 27-minute first-set lead and proved even more dominant in the second.

For world No5 Pegula, it was as if the enormity of the occasion got to her as she struggled for answers as her Polish opponent sealed a sixth WTA title of 2023.

It means Swiatek ends a season straight season as world No1 and takes her weeks at the top spot to 76 weeks, putting her in the top 10 of the all-time list.

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