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CANCUN, Mexico — Right after relinquishing the No. 1 ranking two months ago, Iga Swiatek<\/a> couldn’t help but worry about trying to regain it.<\/p>\n “It’s hard not to think about stuff like that,” she explained.<\/p>\n And then Swiatek realized it was better to set that sort of thing aside and, instead, simply focus on playing her best tennis — and her best is better than anyone else’s at the moment. Swiatek earned her first WTA Finals title and clinched the year-end No. 1 ranking by overwhelming Jessica Pegula<\/a> 6-1, 6-0 on Monday in the latest in a series of dominant performances.<\/p>\n “Today was like a highlight of this mental [approach] — just being narrow with your head, only thinking about the right stuff,” said Swiatek, a 22-year-old from Poland who is the youngest WTA Finals champion since Petra Kvitova<\/a> was 21 in 2011.<\/p>\n Swiatek went 5-0 at the tour’s season-closing championship, winning all 10 sets she played and ceding a total of just 20 games. That’s the fewest by the winner at the event for the top eight women in tennis since the round-robin format returned in 2003.<\/p>\n “She clearly really wanted that ranking,” Pegula said. “I mean, you could tell by the way she was competing here. … She was, like today, crushing people.”<\/p>\n Swiatek extended her winning streak to 11 matches and improved to 68-11 in 2023 with six trophies, including her fourth career Grand Slam title at the French Open in June.<\/p>\n Pegula called it “an amazing year.”<\/p>\n This victory allows Swiatek to return to No. 1, a spot she held from April 2022 until this September, when Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> overtook her after the US Open. In Cancun, Swiatek defeated Sabalenka in a semifinal that began Saturday, was suspended by rain, then finished on Sunday.<\/p>\n