INDIAN WELLS, Calif. – Iga Swiatek of Poland and Taylor Fritz defeated Maria Sakkari of Greece and Rafael Nadal of Spain in their respective women’s and men’s singles finals to claim the 2022 Indian Wells titles.
The 20-year-old Swiatek claimed six of those breaks including two in a one-sided second set, clinching a second consecutive WTA 1000 title with a thundering forehand winner.
The title is the fifth of 2020 French Open champion Swiatek’s career.
“It’s pretty crazy because I wasn’t expecting to be in that place (final) especially after playing so well in the previous tournament; I didn’t know it was possible for me to play that well for that long,” Swiatek, winner of the WTA 1000 event in Doha in February, said according to Reuters.
After losing her first three meetings with the Greek, Swiatek has now come out on top in the last two, with the victory extending her WTA match-win streak to 11.
Sakkari earned a spot in the final by dispatching defending champion Paula Badosa but had no answers for the windy conditions and a focused Swiatek.
Sakkari never settled into the contest. She held serve to start the second set but after that it was one-way traffic as Swiatek swept five consecutive games.
“Obviously it wasn’t my day,” said Sakkari. “There’s not much I can say about the way I played.
“Clearly it was windy. We were both struggling with our serves in the beginning of the match.
Sakkari fended off two break points in the second game of the second set, and the Greek used sterling forehand returns in the following game to push Swiatek to three deuces.
But Swiatek battled her way to a hold for 2-1, and from there, the Pole began to race through the rest of the match.
Combining outstanding deep ground strokes with excellent defending, Swiatek survived the blustery conditions, winning the final five games of the match to take the champion’s trophy.
Swiatek notched six service breaks on the day to triumph in the Top 10 showdown.
