The second edition of the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia began with the familiar sight of Iga Swiatek brutally laying waste another of the best players in the world. The six-time grand slam champion demolished Madison Keys 6-1, 6-2 in their first match of the group stage.
Swiatek had been struggling in recent tournaments, fatigue seemingly setting in at the end of a draining 10-month season. However, the Pole had three weeks to regroup after her 6-1, 6-2 loss to Jasmine Paolini in the quarter-finals of the Wuhan Open. She looked fresh and locked in from the beginning, affirming her status as one of the favourites alongside Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1, by serving extremely well and putting Keys under relentless pressure off both wings with her weight of shot and defence while offering few mistakes.
Jannik Sinner, the world’s No 2 player, played like it on Saturday in France, coasting past Germany’s Alexander Zverev 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the final of the Rolex Paris Masters. The Italian racked up eight aces and was 90% (19 of 21) on first serve points. He added 6 of 9 break point conversions and won 54 of 80 (68%) total points.
This is Sinner’s first final reached at the Paris Masters. “I’m happy to be in the final, but it’s not how you want to arrive,” Sinner said.
Zverev provided little resistance after his elongated 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over Daniil Medvedev on Friday night, showing signs of fatigue early and often.
The German finally got his first game to start the second set, but any hopes of a rally were quickly quashed. Sinner reeled off six straight winning games to close out the second set and the victory.
Sinner, who earned 23 winners, felt his opponent clearly wasn’t at his best
“Playing against Sascha is always a special occasion, and today he was clearly not 100 percent, we saw that,” Sinner said. “He was struggling physically. He won an incredible match yesterday.“
Sinner advances to face ATP No. 10 Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final. The Canadian scrapped a little more than Sinner, but he ultimately came up in the winner’s column with a 7-6 (3), 6-4 victory over Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik.
Auger-Aliassime had 12 aces compared to Bublik’s five, netting 26 winners in total.
“He plays incredible tennis at the moment, he has improved a lot,” Sinner said. “Especially in the past months, he has found his game again. I’m looking forward to it tomorrow, it’s a great occasion for both of us. I’m very happy for Felix, he is one of the nicest guys we have on Tour. It’s going to be a very difficult match.“
It will be an opportunity for Sinner to catch rival Carlos Alcaraz in the ATP rankings to reclaim the No. 1 ranking. Sinner trails by 100 points.
Sinner and Auger-Aliassime are 2-2 against one another, with Sinner having taken the last two matchups earlier this year at the US Open and at Cincinnati. Reuters
This one-sided result, however, also said much about Keys’ lack of preparation for a tournament composed of the eight best in the world, with no opportunity to ease into the early rounds and gradually regain rhythm, as is the case in most regular Keys’ season had started with an incredible win over Swiatek in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, where she saved a match point en-route to her long-awaited maiden grand slam title. The American struggled to find her best form after that and then suffered a wrist injury that has forced her off the tour since losing in the opening round of the US Open.
The 30-year-old could not have asked for a tougher opponent on her return. Constantly forced into difficult positions on the court with no time on the ball, Keys sprayed errors freely as she tried to wrestle control of the points. Despite her enormous serve, she held twice. Keys ended the match with eight winners compared with 38 unforced errors.
This staging marks the second year of the Women’s Tennis Association’s three-year deal in Saudi Arabia and Swiatek should feel comforted by the lack of drama surrounding her this time. Her only WTA Finals title run came in Cancún two years ago, a tournament held during hurricane season in dire weather conditions and at a time when the event moved between countries each year.
Last year, Swiatek lost in the group stage weeks after being informed she had tested positive for the banned substance trimetazidine. She was cleared of any deliberate wrongdoing, after proving that her melatonin medication had been contaminated.
Now she has the benefit of simply focusing on her tennis. While the WTA has tried to divert attention to its hopes of helping to spotlight women’s issues in Saudi Arabia, as is the case with all sporting events held there, the financial incentives are the most pressing reason for its presence. Swiatek and her rivals will be handsomely rewarded for their efforts.
Jannik Sinner, the world’s No 2 player, played like it on Saturday in France, coasting past Germany’s Alexander Zverev 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the final of the Rolex Paris Masters. The Italian racked up eight aces and was 90% (19 of 21) on first serve points. He added 6 of 9 break point conversions and won 54 of 80 (68%) total points.
This is Sinner’s first final reached at the Paris Masters. “I’m happy to be in the final, but it’s not how you want to arrive,” Sinner said.
Zverev provided little resistance after his elongated 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory over Daniil Medvedev on Friday night, showing signs of fatigue early and often.
The German finally got his first game to start the second set, but any hopes of a rally were quickly quashed. Sinner reeled off six straight winning games to close out the second set and the victory.
Sinner, who earned 23 winners, felt his opponent clearly wasn’t at his best
“Playing against Sascha is always a special occasion, and today he was clearly not 100 percent, we saw that,” Sinner said. “He was struggling physically. He won an incredible match yesterday.“
Sinner advances to face ATP No. 10 Felix Auger-Aliassime in the final. The Canadian scrapped a little more than Sinner, but he ultimately came up in the winner’s column with a 7-6 (3), 6-4 victory over Kazakhstan’s Alexander Bublik.
Auger-Aliassime had 12 aces compared to Bublik’s five, netting 26 winners in total.
“He plays incredible tennis at the moment, he has improved a lot,” Sinner said. “Especially in the past months, he has found his game again. I’m looking forward to it tomorrow, it’s a great occasion for both of us. I’m very happy for Felix, he is one of the nicest guys we have on Tour. It’s going to be a very difficult match.“
It will be an opportunity for Sinner to catch rival Carlos Alcaraz in the ATP rankings to reclaim the No. 1 ranking. Sinner trails by 100 points.
Sinner and Auger-Aliassime are 2-2 against one another, with Sinner having taken the last two matchups earlier this year at the US Open and at Cincinnati. Reuters
An undefeated champion would depart with $5.235m (£3.98m), the highest prize money purse in the history of women’s sport and second only to the $6m offered to Jannik Sinner last month as the winner of the Six Kings Slam exhibition event.
Having earned $42,945,490 at just 24, Swiatek recently leapfrogged Venus Williams as the second-highest prize money earner in women’s tennis, where she trails only Serena Williams. On the evidence of this performance, the figures in her bank account will only continue to rise.
Later on Saturday, Elena Rybakina continued her excellent form by easing past the fourth seed, Amanda Anisimova 6-3, 6-1. Rybakina, the sixth seed, had been among the final group of players to qualify for Riyadh, by winning in Ningbo, China, last month. She backed up her imperious serving performance with controlled, relentless shotmaking to clear her first hurdle without problem.
The victorious Swiatek and Rybakina will resume their rivalry on Monday in the second slate of matches in the Serena Williams group, while Anisimova will play Keys in a must-win match for both. On Sunday, the Stefanie Graf group will begin with Sabalenka facing Paolini and Coco Gauff opening her title defence against her American compatriot Jessica Pegula.
