Iga Swiatek thrashed Jessica Pegula to win the season-ending WTA Finals and move back to the top of the women’s rankings.

The 22-year-old was in clinical mood as Pegula struggled to find her range in a match lasting just 59 minutes.

It is the first time Swiatek has won the WTA Finals tournament.

She is the youngest champion of the tournament since Petra Kvitova’s 2011 win at the age of 21.

“I want to thank my team who have been with me for the whole season,” said Swiatek.

“We’ve had many ups and downs but this is for sure an up, and we’ll have many more if we keep working like that.”

The final took place a day late on Monday following bad weather at the event but was played out in sunshine at the venue in Cancun, Mexico.

Swiatek was quickly out of the blocks and broke in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead before racing away to claim the first set in 27 minutes.

It was the first set either player had dropped at the event and Pegula, the world number five, lost her serve for a third time in the first game of the second set.

Swiatek was overwhelming her rival and broke to love to go 3-0 up on the way to securing her sixth WTA title of the season.

The victory ensured Swiatek will end the year as world number one for a second consecutive season.

In 2022, she recorded a remarkable 37 straight wins and six successive titles, asserting herself as the top-ranked women’s player – where she would remain for 75 weeks until Sabalenka replaced her in September this year.

“2022 was so amazing that I don’t know if it’s going be possible for me to repeat a season like that,” Swiatek said.

“So I just didn’t feel at the end like I’m in the shadow anymore because I knew that I’m having another great season.

“I learned my lesson and this time I didn’t want [the number one ranking] to have an impact on me. It did a little bit, it’s hard not to think about stuff like that, but I knew that I had to focus on different things.”