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Iga Swiatek thrashed Jessica Pegula to win the season-ending WTA Finals and move back to the top of the women\u2019s rankings.<\/p>\n
The Pole needed to beat the American in the final in Cancun to overtake Aryna Sabalenka as world number one and she did so with a dominant 6-1 6-0 win.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old was in clinical mood as Pegula struggled to find her range in a match lasting just 59 minutes.<\/p>\n
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It is the first time Swiatek has won the WTA Finals tournament.<\/p>\n
She is the youngest champion of the tournament since Petra Kvitova\u2019s 2011 win at the age of 21.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank my team who have been with me for the whole season,\u201d said Swiatek.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had many ups and downs but this is for sure an up, and we\u2019ll have many more if we keep working like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The final took place a day late on Monday following bad weather at the event but was played out in sunshine at the venue in Cancun, Mexico.<\/p>\n
Swiatek was quickly out of the blocks and broke in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead before racing away to claim the first set in 27 minutes.<\/p>\n
It was the first set either player had dropped at the event and Pegula, the world number five, lost her serve for a third time in the first game of the second set.<\/p>\n
Swiatek was overwhelming her rival and broke to love to go 3-0 up on the way to securing her sixth WTA title of the season.<\/p>\n
The victory ensured Swiatek will end the year as world number one for a second consecutive season.<\/p>\n
In 2022, she recorded a remarkable 37 straight wins and six successive titles, asserting herself as the top-ranked women\u2019s player \u2013 where she would remain for 75 weeks until Sabalenka replaced her in September this year.<\/p>\n
\u201c2022 was so amazing that I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going be possible for me to repeat a season like that,\u201d Swiatek said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I just didn\u2019t feel at the end like I\u2019m in the shadow anymore because I knew that I\u2019m having another great season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned my lesson and this time I didn\u2019t want [the number one ranking] to have an impact on me. It did a little bit, it\u2019s hard not to think about stuff like that, but I knew that I had to focus on different things.\u201d<\/p>\n
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