"Iga Swiatek's won more titles on hard than clay";"Disrespect is crazy" - Fans vexed by Pole's World No. 1 ranking being doubted after Cincinnati exit

Tennis fans were annoyed after Iga Swiatek's World No.1 ranking was doubted following her exit from the 2024 Cincinnati Open. The Pole reaching the semifinals of the WTA 1000 hard court event marked her best performance at the tournament thus far, having also reached the final four last year.

Swiatek arrived in Cincinnati on the back of her bronze medal win at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She entered the tournament as the top seed and commenced her campaign in the second round after receiving a first-round bye. She began by defeating qualifier Varvara Gracheva 6-0, 6-7(8), 6-2 in the opening round and then triumphed over 15th seed Marta Kostyuk 6-3, 6-2 in the third round. In the quarterfinals, she defeated Mirra Andreeva 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 to secure her place in the semifinals

However, Iga Swiatek's run at the Cincinnati Open came to an end in the semifinals, where she was defeated 3-6, 3-6 by third seed Aryna Sabalenka. This marked her fourth career loss to the Belarusian.

Following her exit from the WTA 1000 hard court tournament, a social media user questioned Swiatek's World No. 1 status, suggesting that she wouldn't hold the position without clay court tournaments.

"You gotta ask yourself: if there weren’t any clay events, would Swiatek be ranked No. 1? Highly unlikely. Sabalenka takes her to the woodshed 6-3, 6-3 to reach the finals in Cincy."

This comment angered tennis fans, who took to social media to defend Swiatek and her World No.1 ranking. One fan stated that Iga Swiatek has more titles on the hard court than she has on the clay therefore the criticism was invalid. While another fan expressed that it was "disrespectful" to make such comments against Swiatek.

"She's won more titles on hard than on clay. And she's won more titles on hard than any other player on tour for 3 seasons in a row. Dumb take. Clay season last 6 weeks," a fan posted.

"The disrespect is crazy," a fan wrote.

A fan even said that Swiatek would still be a top-ranked player if the rankings were based solely on hard court performances.

"If the rankings were exclusively hard court points, Iga would be first still. So yeah," a fan posted.

Another fan pointed out some of the hard court titles the 23-year-old has won while another pointed out that no other player has won more hard court tournaments this year than the Pole.

"USO champion, one of the youngest sunshine double champion, WTA F champion, 3x consecutive Doha champ, Defending Beijing champion, amongst other hard court titles but sure right only “clay.” Actually watching matches and not drawing conclusions from just one match helps, y’know," a fan wrote.

" 😂 y’all are way too comfortable disrespecting her on here as if any other tennis player has won more hard court tournaments this year than her," a fan wrote.

One fan stated that Iga Swiatek having just a "bad day at the office" does not make her a bad player.

"Woah one bad day at the office and people saying she's not good enough lol if semifinals of almost all 1000 events across the past couple of years isn't enough then idk what is," a fan posted.

"Almost 3 years since, and this remains true," a fan posted.

Iga Swiatek has won two hard-court titles in 2024

Iga Swiatek with Qatar Open trophy (L) & Swiatek with BNP Paribas Open trophy (R) [Source: Getty]

Iga Swiatek has won two hard-court titles this season. She won the 2024 Qatar Open and the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, both of which are WTA 1000 hard-court events.

In Doha, Swiatek was the top seed and two-time defending champion. She defeated the likes of Sorana Cirstea, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Victoria Azarenka, Karolina Pliskova, and Elena Rybakina in the final to win the title. This was her third consecutive Qatar Open title, her seventh WTA 1000 title, and her 18th WTA Tour title overall

At the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Iga Swiatek triumphed over players like Danielle Collins, Linda Noskova, Yulia Putintseva, Caroline Wozniacki, Marta Kostyuk, and Maria Sakkari in the final to win the title. This win was her second title at Indian Wells and this win also made her the first woman since Victoria Azarenka in 2016 to achieve multiple titles at the event.