Iga Swiatek
Her life motto is stuck on the door inside her Porsche Panamera: “You don’t get up in the morning to be average”. Aged only 23, Iga Swiatek is already one of her sport’s greats. It does not remain without consequences for her daily life, especially back home in Poland. “People recognise me almost everywhere,” she says, “It’s difficult for me to live in peace and quiet.”
The popularity does occasionally have its good sides like when supporting the people in Ukraine. It is something very dear to the heart of Iga Swiatek. 15,00 spectators turned up to her “Iga Swiatek and Friends for Ukraine” event in the Tauron Arena in Kraków. Over a million people watched the TV broadcast. In the end, the event raised over half a million euro for Ukrainian children and adolescents affected by the war.
Iga Swiatek was born in Warsaw on 31 May 2001. In 2016, she won her first ever ITF tournament in Sweden. In 2020, celebrated her maiden Grand Slam win on the clay at the French Open and then added further Grand Slam titles in Roland Garros in 2022, 2023 and 2024. She won the US Open in 2022 and the WTA Finals in 2023, and has a total of 22 WTA titles to her name.
At the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, she crowned herself the tennis queen of Stuttgart in 2022 and 2023 and was able to take a sports car from Zuffenhausen back home with her each time. True to her motto: “There’s always space in the garage for a Porsche.” On 4 April 2022, the Pole, who prefers to listen to hard rock by AC/DC before her matches, became the world No. 1 for the first time.
Despite all her success, it is not always easy for her to grasp that she has become the world’s top player. “Sometimes,” she says, “my team has to remind me what I’ve achieved and that I can feel proud.”
Maria Sakkari
Her sandpit was her tennis court. Maria Sakkari’s path to becoming a professional tennis player was mapped out early on. Her mother Angeliki Kanellopoulou played successfully on the WTA Tour and managed to break into the Top 50. She took the little Maria out onto a tennis court, discovered her talent and then supported her when, aged 18, she moved to Barcelona as Spain offered better practice facilities. A good decision as she qualified for her first Grand Slam in her rookie year at the 2014 US Open.
Born in Athens on 25 July 1995, Maria Sakkari then put Greece on the tennis map in the years afterwards. In 2021, she managed to become the first Greek to break into the Top 10, thanks in no small measure to her reaching the semifinals at the French and US Opens. As a result, she qualified, again as the first Greek, for the WTA Finals in Guadalajara, Mexico where she went on to reach the last four at the season’s highlight.
In view of her successes, it is a little astonishing that she has only won two career WTA titles – in Rabat in 2019 and in Guadalajara in 2023 – to her name. Nevertheless, the right-hander who views Serena Williams as her role model and the serve as her biggest strength, is a one of the best. Her highest career ranking came on 21 March 2022 when she was listed as the world No. 3.
