World No. 1 and US Open champion Iga Swiatek speaks to CNN about her run to become the world’s highest-scoring women. (2:43)
The first woman to win the Open 13 times, Iga Swiatek can only hope it’s not her last.
She won the women’s singles title at the US Open in 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1980. She won the French Open in 1973 and 1977 and the Japan Open in 1979 and 1980. She triumphed at Wimbledon in 1974 and 1977, and the US Open in 1978 and 1980. She claimed her ninth French Open singles title in 1977.
Swiatek, who is Czechoslovakia-born, won her first Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon when she was 15 years old, and followed up with another on her second attempt at the 1975 US Open.
She is the sole tennis player other than Serena Williams to have won all four Grand Slam singles titles.
Swiatek has been a champion since she was 15, and has won nearly 80 per cent of the Grand Slam singles titles awarded to women in the Open era, according to the International Tennis Federation. More than any other women, Swiatek has transcended tennis’s three-on-three match format into a spectacle with her powerful serve, powerful backhand, and deft and beautiful backhand volley. She’s also been a formidable women’s player for more than two decades.
Here, Swiatek tells CNN about her journey to the pinnacle of women’s tennis.
What are your goals for the rest of 2011 and the start of the season?
I want to carry on playing as much as I could. At the Open, you are playing for a trophy. You are playing for the $150,000 that pays for your ticket and your flight, and you are spending the rest of your life in this sport. So, you are putting your career on the back burner to put your family on the back
