Stat of the Year, No. 3: Iga Swiatek’s top-seeded three-peat at Roland Garros

Welcome to our Top 5 Stats of the Year countdown! So far we’ve covered Coco Gauff becoming the youngest woman to beat No. 1 and No. 2 at the same tournament since 2006 and Aryna Sabalenka becoming just the second woman in the last 27 years to sweep both hard-court majors in the same season.

Up next, another WTA superstar pulls off an Open Era first.

Like Rafael Nadal, Iga Swiatek is starting to become synonymous with Roland Garros—she’s completely dominated the clay-court major this decade, winning it four of the last five years in 2020, 2022, 2023 and 2024. She was a quarterfinalist there in 2021.

By winning it the last three years in a row, she became just the third woman in the Open Era to three-peat in Paris, after Monica Seles (1990 to 1992) and Justine Henin (2005 to 2007).

But there’s even more.

Showing an incredible ability to perform her best under pressure, Swiatek is actually the first woman in the Open Era to win Roland Garros for three consecutive years as the No. 1 seed.

She’s come through some close battles on the terre battue the last two years, too, not only fighting off a match point to defeat Naomi Osaka in the second round this year, 7-6 (1), 1-6, 7-5, but also battling back from a break down in the third set to defeat Karolina Muchova in the final last year, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.

Seles was the No. 2 seed when she lifted her first trophy there in 1990, then the No. 1 seed the next two years. Henin was the No. 10 seed in 2005, the No. 5 seed in 2006 and the No. 1 seed in 2007.

Coincidentally, there has now been one woman to three-peat as the No. 1 seed at each Grand Slam in the Open Era.

Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf achieved it at the other three. Navratilova did it six years in a row at Wimbledon!

WOMEN TO WIN THE SAME MAJOR THREE YEARS IN A ROW AS NO. 1 SEED (Open Era):
Chris Evert at US Open [1975-1977] Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon [1982-1987] Steffi Graf at Australian Open [1988-1990] Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros [2022-2024]

Next year, Swiatek will try to become the first woman to win Roland Garros FOUR years in a row since Suzanne Lenglen over 100 years ago.

Our Top 5 Stats of the Year countdown continues tomorrow with a historic all-surface sweep…

TOP 5 STATS OF THE YEAR
Stat of the Year, No. 4: Aryna Sabalenka’s rare Australian Open-US Open sweep
This week we’re counting down our top five stats of the year. Today, it’s an elusive hard-court double.

Yesterday we kicked off our Top 5 Stats of the Year countdown with Coco Gauff becoming the youngest woman to defeat the world No. 1 and No. 2 at the same tournament since 2006.

Today, the countdown continues with another rare double.

Aryna Sabalenka had a career year this year, highlighted by winning both of the hard-court majors, the Australian Open in January and the US Open at the end of the summer.

And she blew through those draws, too, dropping just one set along the way—that was the first set of her third-round match against Ekaterina Alexandrova at the US Open, and she bounced back from it in scary fashion, eventually cruising, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2.

But it turns out winning both hard-court majors in the same season has become extremely rare in recent decades.

Sabalenka became just the second woman in the last 27 years to win the Australian Open and US Open in the same season.

Yes, you read that right.

Since Martina Hingis achieved the feat as a 16-year-old in 1997, only one other woman—Angelique Kerber in 2016—did the double.

Since 1988, which was the first year that both events were held on hard courts, Sabalenka is the fifth woman overall to do it.

WOMEN TO WIN AUSTRALIAN OPEN AND US OPEN IN SAME YEAR (since 1988):
Steffi Graf [1988, 1989] Monica Seles [1991, 1992] Martina Hingis [1997] Angelique Kerber [2016] Aryna Sabalenka [2024]

The US Open switched from clay to hard courts in 1978, while the Australian Open switched from grass to hard courts in 1988.

Perhaps even more incredible about this feat is that it’s one of the rare things that the most accomplished women’s tennis player in the Open Era, and maybe in history, didn’t achieve—Serena Williams won seven Australian Opens and six US Opens in her career, but was never able to win them both in the same year.