Iga Swiatek double bagels Karolina Pliskova in the final of Rome

Iga Swiatek (Peter Menzel, Wikimedia Commons)

There is no doubt that Iga Swiatek is becoming one of the top clay-court specialists in women’s tennis. On Sunday from Rome in the final of the Italian Open, Swiatek was completely dominant in a straight set, 6-0, 6-0 victory over Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.

The Swiatek/Pliskova match only took 46 minutes. Swiatek, the 15th seed, won 93% of the points on her first serve and 51 of the 64 points overall. This was the second significant win by Swiatek on clay over the last year as this past October, she defeated Sofia Kenin of the United States 6-4, 6-1 in the final of the French Open. With the win over Kenin, Swiatek became the lowest-ranked women’s player ever to win the French Open at 54th in the world.

The double bagel scoreline has happened before in women’s tennis among high profile players. In 1988, Steffi Graf of West Germany defeated Natalia Zvereva of the Soviet Union 6-0, 6-0 in the French Open final. The match only took 34 minutes to play. This was part of one of the greatest single seasons ever for a women’s tennis player. In addition to winning all four grand slam titles in 1988, Graf won the gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul.

According to Raz Mirza of Sky Sports, there have been three other WTA Finals with the 6-0, 6-0 scoreline since 2000. In 2006, Marion Bartoli of France beat Olga Puchkova of Russia in Quebec City; in 2013, fellow Polish player Agnieszka Radwanska beat Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia in the Sydney final; and in 2016, Simona Halep of Romania beat Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia in the Bucharest Open final.

In the early 1980s, Chris Evert had two notable 6-0, 6-0 wins. In 1981, she beat Martina Navratilova in the final of Amelia Island, and then in 1982, Evert beat Tracy Austin in East Rutherford. In addition to beating Zvereva 6-0, 6-0, Graf double bageled Austin at Indian Wells in 1994. There was also another notable double bagel scoreline in Indian Wells in 2005, as that was the location where Lindsay Davenport beat Maria Sharapova. Also in 2001 at the Miami Open, Martina Hingis beat Monica Seles 6-0, 6-0, and in the first round of the 2011 Australian Open, Kim Clijsters beat Dinara Safina, 6-0, 6-0.

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