STARNBERG, March 30, 2022 (by Mark P.)

Iga Swiatek has secured her 15th straight win of the 2022 season on Wednesday, with a commanding 6-3, 6-3 victory against Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinal of the Miami Open. With the form the 20-year-old has been showing of late, the online sports betting Arizona odds show her as the favorite to claim the Sunshine Double, but the question remains – how far can her streak go?

With Ash Barty announcing her retirement from professional tennis, it’s time for the WTA to crown the next best tennis player on tour, and Iga Swiated did not need long to grasp the opportunity with both hands.

Having already won the Indian Wells Master in March, the 20-year-old has now set her eyes on completing the Sunshine Double as she marched towards the Miami Open title with full force.

Last Wednesday, Swiatek clashed with another prominent player, Petra Kvitova, in what proved to be a very intriguing inaugural meeting between the two-star players. Both known for their talent, incredible ceiling, and powerful ball stikes, Swiatek and Kvitova went head-to-head in the Miami Open quarterfinals.

Both players have had a special relationship with the no.1 in the world ranking. On more than one occasion, Kvitova had come very close to claiming the top spot, most notably in 2019, when she came one set short of winning the Australian Open, which would cement her as the no.1 player in the world.

On the other side, Iga Swiatek has never fought her way to the top of the WTA Rankings. But she has technically inherited the spot following Barty’s retirement from professional tennis last month.

As two of the world’s best tennis players went head-to-head, the tennis fans were promised a close affair, which soon turned into a one-sided match. In a shockingly one-sided affair, Swiatek breezed past Kvitova, needing just 77 minutes to seal the deal with 6-3, 6-3.

Interestingly, not once had Swiatek face a breakpoint, and she was the clear best player on the day, winning 59% of her second serve points – compared to Kvitrova’s 30%.

It was a dominant showing from the Pole and a fitting one as it marked Swiatek’s 15th straight win, which sees her 2022 record jump to 24-3!

But while an incredible achievement, it’s hardly surprising, knowing how dominant Swiatek has been throughout the Miami Open – she has yet to lose more than three games up to that point.

“Right now, it became kind of obvious that I’m gonna be strong, and I’m gonna run to everything,” said Swiatek after the win.

“When I was younger, I had to a little bit force myself to do that, but I got used to it. Right now, I feel like pretty confident it’s giving me a lot of skills. It’s great.”

A monumental achievement has put Swiatek on the world map as the potential future star. Admittedly, Kvitova deserves a lot of respect for her showing on the day, and she is still one of the best players in the world. Still, we must remember that Kvitova is 32, while Swiatek is only 20-years-old and already shows how dominant she can be.

Does Swiatek’s recent showing suggest we could be witnessing the birth of the future women’s tennis superstar? Perhaps, but we had seen countless times before how a young dominant player caught everyone’s attention only to slip and fall into a slump from which they never recovered.

That, however, doesn’t suggest that Swiatek is bound to fail. She is on top of her game, and very little would suggest Swiatek can’t keep her wheels spinning and continue to dominate the scene. And until proven otherwise, Swiatek is the current best women’s tennis player – something she will look to solidify in France, where the Pole will chase her second French Open crown.