WORLD number one Iga Swiatek showed no mercy against Greek top 10 talent Maria Sakkari, defeating her comprehensively in the 2024 Indian Wells WTA 1000 final, the second time in three years.The pair met back in 2022 with the result the same, though this time it was even more one-sided with Swiatek trouncing the world number nine, 6-4 6-0.

It was an eerily similar result for Swiatek – who won 6-4 6-1 back in the 2022 decider, who has now won four straight matches against Sakkari after the Greek won the pair’s first two encounters.Strangely enough, in every match they have played it has been straight sets with the losing player not winning any more than four games in a set.

In the most recent encounter overnight, Swiatek was at her brutal best, needing just 68 minutes to wrap up the title with a dominant 6-4 6-0 victory. She was showing signs of her dominance in the first set, winning 70 and 71 per cent of her first and second serve points – 19 of 27 total – and only showing two break point opportunities to her opponent.

To Sakkari’s credit, she took full advantage of the chance, breaking her. It would not mean too much though, as Swiatek broke her twice from four opportunities, the second of which came in the final game of the first set. Earlier, the Polish number one had raced out to a 3-0 lead, only for Sakkari to hit back and level the scores at 3-3.

However with the players even at 4-4, the top player in the world went to another level. She won the next eight games on the trot to storm to the title, as Sakkari looked helpless. In one of the worst sets imaginable, Sakkari won just one point on serve in the set – and five points for the whole set – in essentially a training drill.

Swiatek was a class above and fully showcased her array of weapons en route to the victory, claiming her 19th career title and second this year, at just 22 years of age. Sakkari, who has the next most top 10 wins after Swiatek (35 to 20) in the last five years, was unable to make it to a sweet 21st, and would rue another missed opportunity.

The world number one won 12 straight sets on her way to victory in the Californian desert, only dropping 21 games across the six matches.

WOMEN’S SINGLES FINAL RESULT:

[1] Iga Swiatek (POL) defeated [9] Maria Sakkari (GRE) 6-4 6-0