"Their contracts are well in place" - Novak Djokovic and Iga Swiatek will lift 2023 year-end World No. 1 trophy, predicts Todd Woodbridge

Novak Djokovic recently reclaimed his World No. 1 ranking after the Australian Open triumph, while Iga Swiatek hasn’t budged since she was enthroned 47 weeks ago.

Tennis commentator and former Australian player Todd Woodbridge predicts that Djokovic and Swiatek are likely to hold their respective positions until the end of the season to claim the year-end World No. 1 trophy.

“I am not moving off where the rankings sit right now. I just don’t see those players as coming off their level.” Woodbridge remarked on the AO Show podcast. “It’s going to be hard to move either of them. I think their contracts are well in place – the No. 1 player in the world.”

Iga Swiatek may not have had the most ideal start to the season, crashing out in the fourth round of the 2023 Australian Open, but the Pole has been all business ever since. The 21-year-old has defended the first of eight titles that she lifted in 2022 - in Qatar, with utmost ease.

Not only has Iga Swiatek remained unbeaten after the first Grand Slam of the season, she has done so in stellar fashion, not dropping more than three games in any of the matches, and conceded just eight games overall in ten sets. The World No. 1’s formidable performances have Woodbridge drawing parallels to peak Steffi Graf, and he believes that Swiatek’s form is here to stay.

“So Iga Swiatek, who has just cleaned up another tournament victory. Winning 6-0 sets with the ease of Steffi Graf back in the day is continual for me,” Woodbridge said, “I think she’s gonna be hard to get out of that position.”

The commentator voiced similar views about Novak Djokovic. The Serb was banned from contesting tournaments in North America in 2022. Owing to this, he hardly has any points to defend till the conclusion of the US Open swing, which will only benefit Djokovic this year if he is to be allowed to play at those events in 2023, said Woodbridge.

“The same with Novak. When you look at Novak’s schedule and how limited it was over the last year, he doesn’t even have a point to defend at the US Open. He’s got no point in the lead-up to the US Open, if he chooses to play any of those events,” the Australian said.

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Novak Djokovic faces threat to his World No. 1 ranking, Iga Swiatek remains unchallenged

Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz were the year-end World No. 1s in 2022

Although Novak Djokovic has managed to reclaim his World No. 1 spot, the Serb has a target on his back to keep his ranking intact, with World No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz holding a deficit of just 500 ranking points. The Spaniard finds himself in a good position to fill the gap this week as he is through to the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 Rio Open, where he is the defending champion.

Djokovic thus faces the likely threat of losing the World No. 1 ranking as early as next Monday (February 27), after the conclusion of the ATP 500s in Dubai and Acapulco.

Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek won’t need to sweat it out to fight for her position for a while. The three-time Grand Slam champion, who is currently contesting the semifinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships, holds a 4000+ points lead over World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, who has already crashed out of the WTA 1000 event in Dubai.