Iga Swiatek is the favourite for the title at the China Open in 2025, and the top seed started her campaign with a stylish opening win inside the Beijing National Tennis Center.
The world No 2 had the home crowd against her when she took on Chinese wildcard Yuan Yue in her first match of this year’s tournament, though the Pole faced little trouble in a convincing 6-0, 6-3 win over the world No 58.
Swiatek has become accustomed to hitting huge milestones in her career and this opening-match win saw her hit four impressive feats — the first of which is a brand spanking-new record on the WTA Tour.
25 WTA 1000 wins in 2025
Victory over Yue was Swiatek’s 25th win at WTA 1000 tournaments in 2025, with the highlight of her season at that level being her WTA 1000 triumph at the Cincinnati Open in August.
It is the third straight year that the 24-year-old has hit 25 wins at WTA 1000 events, following her 27 wins in 2023 and her 30 such wins in 2024.
Not only is Swiatek the first woman since the WTA 1000 format was introduced in 2009 to win 25+ straight matches in three consecutive seasons, she is the first woman to win that many matches in three separate seasons full stop.
The Pole just missed out on hitting that milestone in 2025, recording 24 wins at WTA 1000 tournaments that season.
Stunning WTA 1000 match record
The Pole has now contested 150 matches at WTA 1000 tournaments, and holds an impressive 122-28 record in those matches.
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That gives her a win percentage of 81.33%, and is a record that only Serena Williams can beat across her first 150 matches at WTA 1000 level.
Williams held a 131-19 record across her first 150 WTA 1000 matches, though had of course been competing in the equivalent Tier 1/Premier events before the format was revamped.
Opening-set form
Swiatek sealed the first set in this match in dominant fashion and once the Pole gets in front, it is usually tough to stop her.
In fact, across all WTA 1000-level tournaments, Swiatek has never lost a completed match after winning the opening set.
The Pole now has a staggering 106-0 record in WTA 1000 matches when she has won the first set.
67 opening-match wins
It has been over four years since Swiatek was beaten in her opening match at a WTA-level tournament, with her last such defeat coming at the 2021 Cincinnati Open to Ons Jabeur.
The Pole has now won her opening-round match at her last 67 tournaments, extending what is the best streak by any woman on the WTA Tour since 1990.
Swiatek previously broke Monica Seles’ milestone of 64 consecutive opening-match wins this summer, with the world No 2 picking up her 65th such win at the US Open.
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The post Iga Swiatek makes WTA history as she hits 4 incredible milestones with China Open win appeared first on Tennis365.
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