RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – When Iga Swiatek strangled alternate Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 6-0 on Thursday, she played as if her continued presence at the WTA Finals Riyadh, presented by PIF, depended on it.

As it turned out, due to a number of complicated tiebreaks, the match had no impact on her progression to the semi-finals.

“Um,” a bewildered Swiatek said later, “you mean it didn’t matter? What?”

Originally, when Swiatek was scheduled to play Jessica Pegula, her only qualifying scenario called for a win and a later win for Coco Gauff over Barbora Krjcikova. But when Pegula withdrew with an injured left knee, Swiatek’s match was no longer included in the semifinal calculation.

“Huh,” Swiatek said after a long silence, causing reporters to burst out laughing.

“Honestly, I don’t think it matters. Like we’re going on the field to win every game anyway, so… I didn’t think about that. I didn’t know that was the case.

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Was it okay that you didn’t know?

“You know,” she said seriously, “I’m professional enough to always give 100 percent, no matter the stakes. So no.”

Unfortunately for Swiatek, her journey to the semifinals was cut short when Krejcikova ousted Gauff in straight sets, ending Swiatek’s hopes of a spot in the final four. Had she advanced, the 23-year-old Swiatek would have become the youngest player to reach three consecutive WTA Finals semi-finals since Maria Sharapova, who made it four in a row from 2004 to 2007.

The results certainly confirm that. It was over in 51 minutes, Swiatek’s second-shortest match of the year, following a 6-0, 6-0 win over Anastasia Potapova in the Round of 16 at Roland Garros, which took 40 minutes.

She won an extraordinary 51 out of 74 points and broke Kasatkina’s serve five out of six times.

That gave Swiatek a 2-1 record in group play and made her a keen observer of the second singles match between Gauff and Krejcikova, a match she said she may have been too nervous to watch.

Pegula struggled in her first two matches, but had defeated Swiatek four times in previous matches. Kasatkina, meanwhile, had lost five of six matches to Swiatek. After the first meeting three years ago in Eastbourne, Kasatkina failed to win a set in the five matches they played in 2022: in Melbourne, Dubai, Doha, Roland Garros and at the WTA Finals in Fort Worth. In fact, Kasatkina averaged less than four matches in those encounters.

The trend continued when Swiatek broke Kasatkina’s first service game. And then the second. Swiatek won 28 of 35 points in a race to a 5-0 lead before Kasatkina claimed her first match after 22 minutes. Three minutes later, Swiatek converted her second set point with a resounding ace.

Swiatek had lost four consecutive matches this year against Top 10 players – Zheng Qinwen (Paris Olympics), Aryna Sabalenka (Cincinnati), Pegula (US Open) and Gauff (WTA Finals) – the longest streak of her career.

Only Aryna Sabalenka (11) has more WTA top 10 wins in 2024 than Swiatek, who is now 10-4.