TORONTO — After making her long-awaited return to the winner’s circle, Iga Swiatek sent a message to a specific group of people on Thursday.
“I want to dedicate this title to everyone who is dealing with unfair judgment and hate,” the Polish star told her delighted supporters in the near-capacity crowd following a 6-2, 6-3 demolition of Elena Rybakina in the final of the National Bank Open presented by Rogers.
“Just keep pushing, keep growing, keep focusing on yourself because you know what's the best for you. Always remember what's ahead and what might be possible. Yeah, here we are.”
Where we are is a familiar place — with Swiatek holding a championship trophy.
In the midst of a rare down year, the six-time Grand Slam champ captured her first WTA title of 2026 in her first final of the campaign. Her last tournament win came in August 2025 at the Cincinnati Open, the WTA 1000 tournament that immediately follows the Canadian 1000-level event. Swiatek is now 26-5 for her career when she reaches a championship match.
The seventh-seeded Swiatek ousted four top-20 opponents in Toronto, including No. 2 Rybakina in just 75 minutes in the first NBO women’s final between multiple Grand Slam champs since 1999.
"It feels great, especially with all the people judging and hating,” Swiatek told Sportsnet’s Danielle Michaud in her first interview after the match. “Not honestly international fans but more at home. Not the fans even, but the experts. I'm happy year by year I give less (expletive) about it and I could win this tournament (so that) I could prove to everyone they just don't make sense sometimes.
“I feel even a little bit even angry right now. I think that's the first time in my life I've felt something like that after a victory. It hasn't been easy.”
Go on social media during any professional tennis match, and you’ll see some truly awful things said about whoever is losing. Swiatek, 25, would have had to live under a rock to avoid seeing certain things written or said about her during her title drought.
She was asked in her press conference if she was referring to social media with her comments.
“Well, if you would be Polish, you would know,” she replied with a laugh, leaving her targets at least a bit of a mystery.
Swiatek, who started working with Rafael Nadal’s former coach Francisco Roig in the spring, took charge early in Thursday’s match against the harder-hitting player from Kazakhstan.
Rybakina, the 2026 ace leader, double-faulted on the final two points of the first game to give Swiatek a lead she would not relinquish in the first set.
Chants of “Iga, Iga, Iga” were first heard in that initial game. Many more would follow as Swiatek’s impressive, full-court defence prevented Rybakina from overpowering her opponent.
"I felt the support, I felt the love,” Swiatek said. “I heard at the beginning of the tournament there was a big Polish community here, but I didn't know it's that big. Half of the stadium was probably Polish.”
Another break gave Swiatek a 5-2 edge against this year’s Australian Open champ, who beat the Polish star in the quarterfinals en route to the first major of the year.
Rybakina didn’t finish off some key opportunities Thursday, allowing Swiatek to stay in points. On Rybakina’s only two break-point chances of the match (in the same game in the first set), she hit the ball long. The two-time Grand Slam champ had 12 unforced errors in the first set, nine more than Swiatek.
“We all know she's a fighter,” Rybakina said, “and she can run left and right much longer than me.”
Swiatek, whose ranking jumps to No. 5, finished 4-for-5 on break points after ending the match on Rybakina’s serve.
Rybakina had four of her first five matches in Toronto go to three sets and spent 11 hours, 25 minutes on the court before Thursday, over three hours more than Swiatek. The tourney runner-up didn’t complete the second semifinal against Coco Gauff until nearly 1 a.m. ET early Thursday morning, giving Rybakina a very late night ahead of the 6 p.m. final.
"The tank was half empty today,” Rybakina told the crowd afterward.
In her press conference, she said she felt “kind of destroyed.”
“I was just very tired,” Rybakina added. “You could see that I wasn't pushing with the legs enough. There was a lot of unforced errors, especially on top of the net. It was just pure lack of concentration. Even on those kind of easy balls, too.”
Swiatek has been as consistent as any player this decade, which is what has made her first half of the season such an outlier. The run to the title here made Swiatek the only player to reach a WTA Tour 1000 final in each of the last six seasons.
Swiatek takes home $1.085 million for the win, while Rybakina collects $565,920 after falling one win short of her third title of the year.
"There are plenty of things that athletes, not only athletes, all the people have to struggle with,” Swiatek said. “Sometimes we need to fight things that we shouldn't. That's why I'm even more proud of myself. I focused on my path and I didn't let that define me.
“I believed, and I know what my game is worth, and I just need to focus on the right stuff, do the right work, and the bright days will come.”
