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Brandon Magpantay/ Special to The Desert Sun / USA TODAY NETWORK

Iga Swiatek says Indian Wells ‘feels like home’ as she claims second title

Originally posted on Tennisbuzz | By Lynsey Thompson | Last updated 3/17/24

Iga Swiatek claimed her second Indian Wells title, saying she feels ‘really proud’ and ‘super happy’.

World number one Swiatek beat Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-0, in a repeat of the 2022 Indian Wells Final.

It was a dominant performance by the four times Grand Slam winner as she picked up her 19^th career title.

Sakkari made a slow start winning only three of the first 15 points, but did come back in the first set to level it. However, Swiatek’s strength shone through, breaking Sakkari’s serve five times and only losing five points in the second set.

"It's an amazing thing to be standing here again," Swiatek said at the trophy presentation. "Thank you for really making this feel like home."

In the post-match press conference, Swiatek said her match results didn’t always give the true picture of her tournament performance.

“I'm really proud of myself,” Swiatek said. “I'm super happy. I mean, even though this tournament looked like, the scores, maybe I had everything under control, it wasn't from the beginning to the end so easy.

“So I'm happy I could improve during the tournament. I felt really good on the last two matches, big amount of confidence.”

IGA’S PARADISE

For the second time in her career World No.1 @iga_swiatek is the Queen of the Desert!!!#TennisParadise pic.twitter.com/vOLyg30bvp
— wta (@WTA) March 17, 2024

The world number one, who will next play in Miami, spoke of her biggest Indian Wells challenges.

"I would say at the beginning of the tournament I felt like I didn't have much luck with the draw," Swiatek said.

"I played opponents that sometimes I struggled with. I lost against Linda [Noskova] in Australia this year. Then I was pretty stressed actually before facing Caroline Wozniacki [in the quarterfinals], because I felt like we haven't played in a while.

“I didn't really know how her game feels on my racquet. I just have huge respect for her. This was the kind of match where I had to kind of work through the stress. But then after that I just felt like I could actually play my game more freely."

Meanwhile, Sakkari apologized to the Indian Wells crowd for the quick match and congratulated Swiatek on her performance.

"I'm sorry I couldn't put up a better fight," said Sakkari during the trophy presentation. "It was pretty quick for you guys but credit to Iga.

"You're an amazing player, a very good person and an incredible champion. You really do deserve the best. You and your team have created something incredible. I'm really hoping we can play a lot more finals."

Swiatek will be hoping to pull off another Sunshine double in Miami, after becoming only the fourth woman to achieve it in 2022. Previous Sunshine Double winners are Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters and Victoria Azarenka.

This article first appeared on Tennisbuzz and was syndicated with permission.

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