Iga Swiatek recently opened up about her feeling after losing to Coco Gauff in the second group match at the 2024 WTA Finals. This year marks Swiatek's fourth appearance at the season-ending tournament, having previously competed in 2021, 2022, and 2023
Swiatek, who is defending her title this year at the WTA Finals after defeating Jessica Pegula in the final last year, was placed in the Orange group for the singles event alongside Gauff, Barbora Krejcikova, and Pegula.
The former World No.1 kicked off her campaign by defeating Krejcikova 4–6, 7–5, 6–2 in the first group stage match. However, she faced a setback in the second group stage match against Coco Gauff, losing 3–6, 4–6.
Following her defeat to the American, during the post match press conference, Iga Swiatek shared her thoughts on the match. She admitted that she wasn't "solid enough" against Gauff during the match . She stated that inspite of having a better head-to-head score against Gauff, she always had to perform well in order to defeat the American.
“Oh for sure I wasn’t solid enough and Coco [Gauff] used her opportunities much better than I did. I had some break points that I didn’t win and for sure I made more unforced errors. And when you play Coco, you need to be solid even though our head-to-head was more positive for me, still never easy to win against her,” Swiatek said.
Swiatek also mentioned that she will hit the practice courts and improve her game before heading onto her third group stage match at the WTA Finals.
“So today for sure, she was a better player and yeah I'm gonna try to adjust a bit better in my next match and try to do some stuff tomorrow in the practice court to be better,” she added.
Iga Swiatek will face Jessica Pegula in her last group stage match at WTA Finals 2024
Iga Swiatek will go up against Jessica Pegula in her final group stage match at the 2024 WTA Finals.
Pegula has had a challenging start to her season-ending tournament campaign this year . She suffered a defeat in her first group stage match against Barbora Krejcikova, with a score of 3–6, 3–6. In her second group stage match, she was unable to secure a win, losing to compatriot Coco Gauff with a score of 3–6, 2–6. These losses resulted in her elimination from title contention.
Iga Swiatek and Jessica Pegula have faced each other 10 times on the WTA tour, with the former World No.1 emerging victorious in six of those encounters. Their most recent match-up took place in the quarterfinals of the 2024 US Open, which Pegula won with a score of 6-2, 6-4