So, a thread on what "earning it on my own" has actually entailed for Swiatek, and how fine the margins are when no one's giving you WCs https://twitter.com/tumcarayol/status/1313590412058263552
As the 2018 USO got under way Swiatek, the 17yo Wimbledon junior champ, was ranked 298. No WC though (unlike for Anisimova, Osuigwe and Liu) - instead she played two 60Ks in Budapest and Montreux, her last tournaments of the year. She won both, breaking the top 200 as a result
That just got Swiatek into Grand Slam qualifying for the first time at the 2019 AO. She was two points from losing to Danilovic in Q1 but came through to reach R2 of the main draw, before also reaching R2 of Budapest in Feb - raising her ranking to 126
That just got Swiatek into the Lugano MD - only just; she was the last direct entry - in April. She reached the final, breaking the top 100 in the last week before the Roland Garros cut-off that year (a ranking that also got her into Wimbledon directly despite a WC offer)
Reaching R4 at RG embedded Swiatek well inside the top 100 and ensured her direct entry to the US hard court events in 2019. But throughout this process, losing just one or two rounds earlier at any of these events could have made a huge difference to her progress.
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