World No. 1 and Warsaw native Iga Swiatek finally won BNP Paribas Warsaw Open on Sunday by thrashing Laura Siegemund 6-0, 6-1 as she claimed her fourth title of the year.
The Pole by winning the maiden championship match at home added to her victories in Doha, Stuttgart and Roland Garros. In breaking her hometown duck, she also completed her 15th career title. The 22-year old said that the emotional strain of playing in front of home crowd makes it very difficult for her.
“I want to thank my team and my family,” Swiatek said in her winner’s speech on court in front of a delighted home crowd.
“It’s not easy to play in Warsaw, but I’m so happy that we could manage and do everything we could today, after a pretty tiring day yesterday.
“I wanted to put it all in and go for it. I’m pretty happy that I did.”
Swiatek acknowledged Siegemund’s strong game which will certainly help her to move 40+ places p the order in WTA rankings.
“Laura, what you did yesterday was pretty surreal. I don’t know if anyone would be able to survive that, but you did,” she said. “Congratulations for this run, because it’s been a pretty great week, and it’s nice that we could play this final.”
Swiatek defeated Yanina Wickmayer in the semis, 6-1, 7-6(6), before setting up final with Siegemund.
In the second set, Swiatek led 5-2 with three match points at 5-3 when the play was suspended on the Saturday night because of bad light. However, when the play resumed she was just two points away from entering into a deciding third set but she successfully thwarted Belgian’s every attempt to do so.
Once again in the tiebreak, the Warsaw native showed nerves in front of the home crowd as she would need three more match points after nearly blowing a 5-1 lead before taking the tiebreak.
Unfortunately for those looking for a close match in the final, the German felt the heat of the scorching hitting by world No.1 and couldn’t’ find her feet during the whole match after getting served a bagel in the first set. The WTA world No. 153 looked off and jokingly admitted that she left her legs in the hotel room.
“I’m sorry I couldn’t put up more of a battle today, but it was a little bit too much yesterday,” Siegemund said in her runner-up speech. “I tried my best, but the legs, they stayed at the hotel today.
“But for me, it was really a great success anyway … it was almost a win for me to be a final at all. It’s been a long time. On such a great stage with such great spectators … I just enjoyed it.”