Iga Swiatek French Open winner
Iga Swiatek has firmly established herself the best player of her generation and she is well on her way to becoming one of the all-time greats of women’s tennis, according to Andy Roddick.
The Pole is already a four-time Grand Slam winner as she has won three titles at Roland Garros and one US Open trophy and she also finds herself ninth on the all-time list for most weeks spent at No 1 as she is currently on 102 weeks at the top of the WTA Rankings.
Iga Swiatek recently took her WTA singles title tally to 20 when she won the Madrid Open – defeating her great rival Aryna Sabalenka in a three-set final – as she collected the ninth WTA 1000 trophy of her young career.
And she has done all of that before the age of 23.
Former world No 1 Roddick feels Swiatek already finds herself in the list of legends just below the top four of Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Serena Williams and Steffi Graf.
“Swiatek, four Majors, nine WTA 1000 titles already, 20 total titles. You could chop her resume into a third and I think she would still have it,” he said on the Served with Andy Roddick podcast.
“Hundred odd weeks at No 1 since Ash Barty retired and kind of handed the No 1 ranking over to her. Swiatek is on her way to becoming one of the best players of all time.
“The women’s side of the game has some separation between Martina, Chrissy, Serena and then you have the rest as far as singles titles go … sorry I mean Steffi is obviously right up there, she is unbelievable. Maybe the most dominant player I have seen day in, day out in my entire life. But those four are separated from everyone else.
“Swiatek is one Slam away from [Maria] Sharapova, [three away from] Justine Henin, she is three Slams away from Venus [Williams] and she is 22.
“It is not like we can say she is going to stop soon, she is 22.”
Roddick also believes that two-time Australian Open champion Sabalenka, who spent eight weeks at No 1 in 2023, is considered a Hall of Famer.
The Belarusian has won 14 WTA singles titles – four of them WTA 1000 trophies – and has dominated women’s tennis alongside Swiatek over the past two years.
“We’re kind of in the upswing of legends careers so Sabalenka now is someone who has won two Slams, has been No 1 in the world, has a bunch of WTA 1000s. She’s a hall of famer already. If my dumb a*** is in, she is in, simply,” the former world No 1 explained.
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