STUTTGART/WASHINGTON, April 23, 2023 (by Michael Dickens)
While the WTA Tour has been hurt for years by a lack of consistent major rivalries at the top of the rankings – the last time the No. 1 and No. 2 players faced each other in a WTA final was the Australian Open in 2018 – Sunday’s match-up between No. 1 Iga Swiatek and No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, both major title champions, in the final of the WTA 500 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix exuded the potential to change that perception.
With both competitors seeking their 13th career titles – and with Swiatek attempting a successful title defense while Sabalenka was making her third consecutive appearance in the Stuttgart, Germany final on indoor clay in Porsche Arena – every swing of the racquet seemed important. There was little margin for error.
By the conclusion of the one-hour, 50-minute championship final, which featured a rematch of the participants of last year’s final, Swiatek successfully defended her Stuttgart title with a convincing 6-3, 6-4 victory over Sabalenka that was both comprehensive and impressive.
Hugs from Papa Swiatek before driving home with another Porsche 🫂🥲@iga_swiatek remains undefeated at the @PorscheTennis Grand Prix! 🏆🏆 pic.twitter.com/eDlWSRWeZD
— wta (@WTA) April 23, 2023
“Congrats Aryna for everything,” Swiatek expressed during the trophy ceremony. “You’ve had such an amazing season. With the Grand Slam at the beginning of the year, all the work you’ve put in has paid off. I’m really happy we’re so consistent and can play so many amazing matches together because I think fans enjoy it.”
Swiatek began strong and her movement about the court stood out. She counterpunched at every opportunity and, throughout, took advantage of Sabalenka’s 36 unforced errors (19 of them in the opening set). The Polish star broke in the eighth game with a solid return winner to go ahead, then stood her ground firmly. She closed out the opening set 6-3 in 51 minutes after Sabalenka sailed a sixth-shot forehand well beyond the baseline.
The first set in the final of this year’s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix goes to @iga_swiatek. She wins the opening set 6-3.#porschetennis #PTGP23 pic.twitter.com/FQSBkybeQl
— Porsche Tennis (@PorscheTennis) April 23, 2023
Then, Swiatek broke Sabalenka in the opening game of the second set after the Belarusian double-faulted for the second time – perhaps feeling the pressure of the moment mounting. Next, she consolidated the break for a 2-0 lead and never looked back. Soon, Swiatek closed out her title performance with a brilliant backhand winner – her 18th overall winner of the afternoon – and she remained undefeated (8-0) in Stuttgart following her success title defense. It was her 20th victory of the 2023 season. She improved to 13-3 in WTA singles finals overall. Swiatek now leads her career head-to-head over Sabalenka 5-2.
After receiving her champion’s trophy and giving plaudits to Sabalenka, her team and the fans who filled Porsche Arena, the only thing that remained was for Swiatek to accept the keys to a brand new Porsche sports car. Soon, the World No. 1 drove her new Neptune Blue PorscheTaycan Turbo S Sports Turismo onto the court. To the victor went the classy car as well as first-prize money of €120,150 and 470 WTA rankings points.
Rome 🏆🛡️🏆
Doha 🏆🛡️🏆
Stuttgart 🏆🛡️🏆A third career title defense for @iga_swiatek! pic.twitter.com/nULdS3qgCJ
— wta (@WTA) April 23, 2023
“I’ll be coming back here every year because I love this tournament,” Swiatek said, which drew one of the biggest applause lines of the trophy ceremony. “The atmosphere because of you is amazing.”
Looking back, Swiatek, who outpointed Sabalenka 73-59 and whose serve was not broken, met every challenge from her opponent head on with confidence and authority in winning her second WTA singles trophy this season to go along with her earlier triumph at Doha – both at the WTA 500-level. Simply, Switek had a bigger tool kit – hitting solid groundstrokes and using superb defense – and mixed up her shot selection with great aplomb. With her straight-set victory, Swiatek heads into the remainder of the clay season (Madrid, Rome, Roland Garros) at the top of the class.
IGA!! 🚙💨
Stuttgart tennis court or Autobahn? 😅@iga_swiatek 🏆 #PorscheTennis pic.twitter.com/4xfIsJANPk
— wta (@WTA) April 23, 2023
“It was great match. She played great tennis,” Sabalenka said in her press conference, giving props to Swiatek. “I think a couple of times I didn’t play my best on my serve. That’s what the key moments, yeah. … I just have to accept it and I just have to learn and improve what didn’t work well today and try better next time.”
In her press conference, Swiatek said: “There are a lot of emotions, honestly. I wanted to win really, really hard, but I knew that I can’t really focus on that and just I have to keep doing my job as I did on previous matches. I’m pretty happy that I could kind of have good mentality and just focus on what I want to do tennis-wise.”
Krawczyk and Schuurs defend doubles title
No. 2 seeds Desirae Krawczyk of the United States and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands, last year’s doubles champions, successfully defended their Stuttgart crown with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the United States and Giuliana Olmos of Mexico for their second title as a team. They converted five of six break points en route to their 64-minute straight-set triumph.
Overall, it was the 16th WTA doubles title for Schuurs and the ninth for Krawczyk.
Double trouble: Desirae Krawczyk and Demi Schuurs secure the back-to-back title in doubles! Well done and see you next year! 😉🧡 pic.twitter.com/toDuEQBDSX
— Porsche Tennis (@PorscheTennis) April 23, 2023
World champions and Porsche Brand Ambassadors in Porsche Arena
Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel and Sami Khedira, a member of Germany’s 2014 World Cup winning team and also a Porsche Brand Ambassador, were in attendance among the sold-out crowds over the weekend. Other Porsche Brand Ambassadors such as race drivers Timo Bernhard and Jörg Bergmeister were also in attendance.
By the numbers
• Sunday’s match-up of the WTA World No. 1 and No. 2 players marked the first time it has happened in a Tour-level final since 2018 Australian Open (Halep def. Wozniacki), and it was the first clay-court final between the Top 2 since 2013 at Roland Garros (S. Williams def. Sharapova).
• Iga Swiatek is now 6-1 in clay-court finals. She became the first player to successfully defend her title at Stuttgart since Angelique Kerber in 2016.
• The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix drew back-to-back sold-out crowds of 4,400 to Porsche Arena over the weekend. The total attendance for this year’s tournament, including last weekend’s qualifying, reached 24,950.
“Quotable …”
“I think I’m getting better with accepting that I have lost this. Yeah, I mean, it’s happen, it’s in the past, I will learn this lesson and move on.
“You know, like before I used to be really depressed after tough matches, but right now I think I’m a little bit older, so I understand that it’s okay, it’s happen. I just have to accept it and I just have to learn and improve what didn’t work well today and try better next time.”
– World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, during her post-match press conference, after losing her third straight Porsche Tennis Grand Prix title match.
