Why Iga Swiatek can’t join list of women to win same WTA 1000 event four years in a row just yet
Only three women have managed to win the same WTA 1000 event four times in a row and, unfortunately, Iga Swiatek won’t make it a four-player club even if she wins the 2025 edition of the Qatar Open.
Swiatek has won the event the past three years, but a fourth consecutive win in Doha won’t result in her joining Steffi Graf, Conchita Martinez and Monica Seles as the players to achieve the four-peat in this specific WTA category.
The reason?
Swiatek is unbeaten at the Qatar Open since she suffered a second-round defeat on her debut in 2020 as she missed the 2021 edition, but then won the trophy in 2022, 2023 and 2024.
But her 2023 title run is the reason why she won’t join this elite list just yet as the tournament was a WTA 500 event that year.
The Qatar Open and Dubai Tennis Championships initially alternated between WTA 1000 and WTA 500 events (Premier 5 and Premier) before both were given permanent WTA 1000 status in 2024.
Thus, Swiatek’s 2022 and 2024 Qatar Open wins were achieved at WTA 1000 level while her 2023 is a WTA 500 trophy.
But while she won’t achieve the WTA 1000 four-peat this year, you won’t rule her out from achieving it in future.
For now only three women have managed to win one of the WTA Tour’s elite tournaments four times in a row.
Of course, there have been many changes to the calendar of the years with some WTA 1000/Premier Mandatory/Premier 5/Tier 1 events dropped and added.
The 3 women to win four consecutive WTA 1000 titles:
Steffi Graf – German Open
Although the WTA only rebranded their top tournaments to Tier I events in 1990, these category one tournaments have been part of tennis for decades and the German Open used to be one of them.
Graf was not only the first to accomplish the four-peat at this level, but she is also the only one to do it twice.
After finishing runner-up to Chris Evert in 1985 as a 15-year-old, Graf went all the way the next year as she won her maiden title in Berlin, beating the great Martina Navratilova 6–2, 6–3. She also won the doubles that year alongside Helena Sukova.
She went on to win the trophy in 1987, 1988 and 1989, winning in straight sets each time.
Her run ended in the 1990 final when she lost 6–4, 6–3 against Monica Seles.
But Graf started another run on the clay in Berlin in 1991 as she went undefeated again for four years as she defeated Aranxta Sanchez Victoria in back-to-back finals in ’91 and ’92 before getting the better of Gabriella Sabatini and Brenda Schultz the following years.
Technically she won five in a row as she missed the 1995 edition and then returned the following year to win her ninth and final title.
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Conchita Martinez – Italian Open
Spanish great Martinez reached the quarter-final and semi-final on her first two visits to Rome and then missed the 1992 edition before going on a crazy run.
She won 1993 tournament, beating Sabatini in the final, then defeated Navratilova in the final the following year while in 1995 she got the better of Sanchez Vicario and in 1995 she beat Martina Hingis.
Mary Pierce was the one to deny her five in a row as the Frenchwoman defeated Martinez in the 1996 final.
Monica Seles – Canadian Open
The Canadian Open is one of the oldest tournaments on the WTA calendar and the great Seles is the only one to win it four times in a row. It is also Seles’ most-successful WTA 1000/Tier event.
After finishing runner-up in 1992, she missed the following edition after being stabbed by a deranged Steffi Graf fan in Hamburg earlier in 1993.
The 1995 Canadian event was her first tournament back after the stabbing incident and she went all the way, beating Amanda Coetzer 6–0, 6–1 in the final.
She then beat Sanchez Vicario in the 1996 final, Anke Huber the following year and Sanchez Vicario again in 1998 before she lost the 1999 final against Martina Hingis.
