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Old Arbat, Moscow

• Guide to Russia

What is the history of the Old Arbat?

• The Arbat district has existed since the 15th century, and was first home to palace artisans and a military garrison. The main street of this area was renamed a number of times, but was always known as ‘Arbat’ by the Muscovites
• State reforms and devastating fires caused the radical transformation of the Old Arbat into a prestigious residential street for Moscow’s aristocracy in the 18th century. Towards the end of the 19th century, the Old Arbat was populated by the intelligentsia and bustled with life
• Stalin’s regime muted both the atmosphere and historical appearance of the Arbat. But later state initiatives sought not just to restore the Old Arbat, but to revive it into a thriving hotspot of Moscow

Photo on Wikipedia

The Old Arbat is one of Moscow’s most atmospheric historical streets, and holds an important place in Russian culture and history. What emerged as a garrison and humble settlement for palace artisans then transformed into a prestigious aristocratic street, and later became a melting pot for members of the Russian and Soviet intelligentsia, some of whom immortalised this unique street in their work. Today, the Old Arbat – known by Muscovites simply as ‘Arbat’ – is a bustling tourist hotspot, and the ideal place for an afternoon’s amble to soak up the atmosphere, culture and history of Moscow.

History of the Old Arbat

  Photo on Wikipedia

The Old Arbat takes its name from the historical Arbat district of Moscow, which is situated to the west of the Kremlin. In the 15th century, this area was an open space beyond Moscow’s city boundaries, where the ancient road connecting Moscow, Mozhaisk and Smolensk began. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, as Moscow was restructured under Grand Duke Ivan III, this area began to be developed as a settlement for artisans who worked at the palace stables. The main street was named Vozdvizhenka, though it was known by the local people as ‘Arbat’.

Did you know? There is much debate over the etymology of the word ‘Arbat’. Two of the most common theories stipulate that it comes from the Arabic word for suburb, ‘rabad’, brought to Moscow by Eastern traders, or from the Turkic word for cart, ‘arba’, as a cart workshop was located in the area.

The Old Arbat acquired its modern dimensions by the end of the 16th century, beginning at the Arbat Gates of Moscow’s White City fortress walls (today the Arbatskie Vorota Square on the Boulevard Ring road) and extending westwards to another gate in the earth and wood rampart encircling the city (today the Smolenskaya Square on the Garden Ring road). This area in between the two ramparts, which encompassed the Arbat, was known as Skorodom, meaning ‘hastily-built houses’. Throughout the 17th century, the left side of the Arbat remained a community of palace artisans, and on the right side stood a number of Streltsy military garrisons, which had been established by Ivan the Terrible in the mid-1550s.

Did you know? In 1658, Tsar Alexei renamed the Old Arbat ‘Smolenskaya’, but this never caught on.

The abolition of the Streltsy at the end of the 17th century, followed by two devastating fires in 1736 and 1812, brought about the transformation of the Old Arbat into a residential street for Moscow’s most illustrious inhabitants. The garrison land became the property of the nobility, and the burnt-out structures were rebuilt with one or two storey Empire-style and Classical-style mansions surrounded by small gardens. From the mid-1700s to the late 1800s, many of Moscow’s most eminent noble families resided on or near the Arbat, within their number the Tolstoy, Dolgoruky, Sheremetyev, Golitsyn, and Trubetskoy families.

Did you know? Famous residents of the Arbat included Alexander Pushkin, Nikolai Gogol, Lev Tolstoy, and Anton Chekhov.

Towards the end of the 1800s, the Arbat was evolving from an aristocratic residential street into one of Moscow’s most vibrant communities. Members of the intelligentsia from all walks of life –academics, composers, government officials, writers – moved to the Arbat and lived and worked in close proximity. The Old Arbat thus became a melting pot of ideas and cultures, and the excellent businesses and cultural, historical, and academic institutions which were founded on the street contributed to the street’s rich and unique atmosphere.

Old Arbat Tour

Let our expert tour guide reveal the secrets and histories behind the Old Arbat on an Express to Russia tour . We pride ourselves on organizing tours that stretch further and delve deeper than any other excursions.

What can you find at the Old Arbat?

• Thanks to the diversity of the Old Arbat’s residents over the centuries, the street is a beacon of culture and history – our handy guide will tell you where to look on your visit!
• Discover buildings with a direct connection to important figures and events in Russian history, architectural masterpieces, museums, statues, theatres, and countless shops and cafes

Must-see spots on the Old Arbat

To make the most of your stroll down the Old Arbat, we’ve compiled a list of interesting sights to look out for.

House No.2/1

Photo by NVO on Wikipedia

This house was home to the restaurant ‘Praga’ which provided entertainment for the Arbat’s most distinguished residents. Its former patrons included Tolstoy, Chekhov and Repin. Later, the famous tavern and dining room of Mosselprom (the Soviet organisation in charge of Moscow’s food and drink industry) was located here. The Praga restaurant is still open today, and is one of Moscow’s oldest restaurants.

This apartment building was built in the style of Eclecticism at the end of the 19th century. It housed the famous bakery of Filippov in pre-revolutionary times, then a café frequented by writers of the Soviet era, including Vladimir Mayakovsky, Andrey Bely, Sergey Yesenin, Alexander Blok, and Boris Pasternak. Today, it is home to the National Cultural Centre of Ukraine.

Did you know? House No.14 was once rumoured to be a haunted house. Upon inspection by the police, it turned out that the ‘ghosts’ were in fact beggars living in the basement.

Houses No.23 and 29

These are luxury apartment blocks and hotels built in the style of Art Nouveau at the turn of the 20th century by architect Nikita Lazarev. They have retained their original features even throughout the Soviet period – a rarity for buildings on the Arbat. No.29 is particularly beautiful - look out for its intricately forged balconies and the unique designs adorning each floor. The former director of the Bolshoi Theatre in the post-revolutionary period, Vladimir Lossky, lived in house no.29.

House No.26

Photo by A.Savin on Wikipedia

The Vakhtangov Theatre is located in this impressive grey and red building designed in the style of Soviet Classicism. The theatre was rebuilt between 1946-1947 after suffering a direct hit from a bomb during the war, and has been operating for nearly a century.

Did you know? On the side of house No.17 is a huge 19x17-metre mural of Marshal Zhukov, Hero of the Soviet Union and the most important Soviet commander during the Second World War, who led the Battle of Stalingrad. The mural was painted in 2015 to commemorate 70 years since the end of the war.

House No.33

This building housed one of Moscow’s first free maternity hospitals. During the Soviet period, Alexey Losev, one of the most important philosophers of 20th century Russia, lived here for nearly half a century. The Library of the History of Russian Philosophy and Culture was subsequently established here in the memory of Losev and his wife, the philologist Aza Takho-Godi.

House No.35

This house was constructed in 1913 by architect Valentin Dubovskoy as a luxury apartment building and elite school. Behind the building’s severe Neo-Gothic façade is currently located the House of Actors and part of the Ministry of Culture.

House No.37

This is the only surviving 18th century house on the Arbat, which belonged to Count Vasily Bobrinsky, the grandson of Catherine the Great and Count Grigory Orlov. The wall of the house which extends alongside Krivoarbatsky Lane is known as ‘Tsoi’s Wall’, as since the death of legendary Russian rock musician Viktor Tsoi in 1990, the wall has been decorated with messages and art in his memory.

House No.43

Famous Soviet bard Bulat Okudzhava lived here as a young boy. Okudzhava immortalised the unique atmosphere of the Arbat in poetic songs such as Pesenka ob Arbate (Little song about the Arbat). On the corner of house No.45 and Plotnikov Lane is a monument to Okudzhava.

House No.44

This beautiful mansion with a Baroque façade was owned by the great-grandfather of Ivan Turgenev. It later housed the Moscow Dental School, and an NKVD safe house during the Soviet period.

House No.51

Soviet author Anatoly Rybakov lived in this building from 1919 to 1933, before being exiled to Siberia until 1937. Rybakov is best known for his dissident book, Children of the Arbat, which was written in the 1960s but not published until 1987, when it became one of the first publications of anti-Stalin literature in Soviet Russia.

House No.53

This is the only surviving residence of Alexander Pushkin, and the Memorial Apartment of A.S. Pushkin is located here. Pushkin spent the first few months of his married life in this house in 1831. Later, the building was home to the younger brother of Tchaikovsky, poet Marina Tsvetaeva, and then a Soviet-era theatre run by Vsevolod Meyerhold and Vladimir Mayakovsky. Opposite the house is a statue of Alexander Pushkin and his wife, Natalia Goncharova.

House No.55

In this building is located the Memorial Apartment of Andrey Bely. The poet spent his childhood living in this house on the Arbat, surrounded by academics and members of the Moscow intelligentsia who were his neighbours. The museum is part of the A.S. Pushkin Museum.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

At the far end of the Arbat stands the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, one of Stalin’s Seven Sisters skyscrapers . The monolithic 172-metre structure was built from 1948 to 1953 by architects Vladimir Gelfreykh and Adolf Minkus, and has many features of English Gothic architecture. An enormous crest of the USSR remains on the building’s façade.

Essential information for visitors Smolenskaya is the nearest metro station to the western end of the Arbat (Ministry of Foreign Affairs). Arbatskaya is the nearest metro station to the eastern end of the Arbat (Restaurant ‘Praga’).

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Classic Moscow

This is our most popular Moscow tour that includes all the most prominent sights. You will become acquainted with ancient Russia in the Kremlin, admire Russian art in the Tretyakov Gallery, listen to street musicians as you stroll along the Old Arbat street, and learn about Soviet times on the Moscow Metro tour.

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MOSCOW TOPOGRAPHY

Moscow has developed in circles around the original historical center. Today, Muscovites divide their city into four road rings. The first one, Bulvarnoye Koltso (Boulevard Ring), contains the very center of the city, the Kremlin, as well as the Red Square and some other tourist attractions. The second ring road draws a circle with a diameter of around five kilometers around the Kremlin and covers what is considered the city center. The area is referred to as  Sadovoye koltso , the Garden Ring. The Third Transport Ring ( TTK ) is a high-speed freeway. The fourth ring is enclosed by the Moscow Automobile Ring Road ( MKAD ). The MKAD is the official city boundary, although there are huge areas outside the ring that are also officially part of the city area.

MOSCOW CLIMATE

December: -10 °C January: -10 °C February: -15 °C

March: -1 °C April: 5 °C May: 14 °C

June: 17 °C July: 20 °C August: 19 °C

September: 10 °C October: 5 °C November: -1 °C

Winter in Moscow usually goes by with lack of sunshine and the long dark nights. The first snow usually appears in the middle of November, but the most snowy months are January and February.

UTILITIES IN RUSSIA

Mains are Europlug (two-pole), voltage is 220V and frequency is 50Hz. Total bills for building maintenance, electricity, gas, water and telephone services are around 6000 rubles (€60.24) per month. All bills can be paid via internet.

MOSCOW PUBLIC TRANSPORT

In Moscow, the main forms of public transport are metro, bus and trolleybus. The Metro stations are renowned for their elegant and grand decor, and the Metro services are frequent and efficient, but during the daytime stations and trains are usually overcrowded. Choose first or last coaches since they are often less crowded. Passes for one or two trips can be purchased via ticket machines (cash and coins only). Tickets cost about 55 rubles (€0.55) for one journey. Tickets are valid at the Metro, bus, trolleybus, tram and monorail. It is better to purchase multi-ride pass, using it is more profitable.

-> Read our main articles about surface public transport and Moscow Metro

MOSCOW TAXI

Uber is available in Moscow as it’s local competitors: Gett , Yandex.Taxi (local leader) or Wheely (use a promo code “WEHEARTMOSCOW” to get 1000 rubles (€10.04) discount at your first Wheely ride). All of them provide iOS and Android apps allowing to order a cab using an online map of Moscow.

-> Read our main article about taxi in Moscow

RUSSIAN MOBILE OPERATORS

There are four major mobile-network providers in Moscow: Beeline , MTS , MegaFon and TELE2 , offering similar services and coverage. 15Gb 3G/LTE data plan costs about 600 rubles (€6.02) per month. Prepaid or contract micro-SIM and nano-SIM cards are available in almost every provider store.

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE PRESS IN MOSCOW

The Moscow Times

Le Courrier de Russie

TV IN MOSCOW

Major TV-providers in Moscow are Rostelecom (default in-flat provider), Beeline (Microsoft Mediaroom platform), NTV Plus (official broadcaster of Russian Football Championship) and MGTS . All of them offer wide range of different language channels including BBC World News, CNN International, France 24, Deutsche Welle, Russia Today and others. Some sport events are available for watching online at Match TV site (HD available).

FM RADIO IN MOSCOW

Jazz: Radio Jazz (89.1 FM) Pop: Europa Plus (106.2 FM), Love Radio (106.6 FM), Chocolate (98.0 FM) Rock: Maximum (103.7 FM), ROCK FM (95.2 FM) Electronic: Megapolis FM (89.5 FM) English-language: Capital FM (105.3 FM)

Most stations are streaming online at MOSKVA.FM .

INTERNET AT HOME IN MOSCOW

Major internet providers in Moscow are Rostelecom (Ethernet), MGTS (PON) and Beeline  (Ethernet or LTE). Average price for fast 60 Mbps internet is 400 rubles (€4.02) per month.

BANKING IN RUSSIA

ATMs are available in almost every street. Most provide 24 hour access. Largest banks are Sberbank , Alfa-Bank and Raiffeisen Bank . Also, Tinkoff bank has grew up in recent years.

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119019 Moscow, Russia, Filippovskiy per. 7, 1

Mon - Sun 10.00 - 18.00

Welcome to Sunshine Bakery! Experience the savory and authentic flavors of Cuban and Argentine cuisine right here in South Florida. Our menu has something for everyone: from delicious sandwiches and tempting pastries to special party menus, coffee, desserts, empanadas, and so much more. Join us for a culinary journey that will delight your taste buds. Don’t forget to pair your meals with our delightful coffee and indulge in a selection of tempting desserts. And for those looking for more than just a quick bite, our empanadas are an unbeatable choice. Come and enjoy an authentic and delicious culinary experience at Sunshine Bakery!

Cubana-Argentina

Come to Sunshine Bakery and immerse yourself in a unique culinary experience where authentic Cuban-Argentinian food merges in a burst of flavors. Our passion for cooking is reflected in every dish we prepare, using only the freshest and highest quality ingredients. Discover the perfect combination of exquisite flavors that will make you come back for more with each visit. We look forward to delighting you with the unique flavors of Sunshine Bakery!

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Sunshine Bakery & Cafe is OPEN in Washington Township! Beautifully Redesigned! Supports ARC Programs. Read On For Hours

Posted on Published: February 4, 2021

The Sunshine Bakery & Cafe opened this week on Tuckahoe Rd in Washington Twp, just past the Walmart Shopping Center.  Sunshine Cafe is a beautifully remodeled store.. with AMAZING and delicious things for sale.  Yes,  cakes, donuts and other baked goods, but also offering house made Soup, Anthony’s Coffee, Boba Tea and more!

And.. they are part of the The ARC Gloucester, so all funds support programs for Individuals with Intellectual or Development disabilities, and many Individuals will work in the Cafe!

The are open Mon-Friday… but only Tues-Thurs can you “Just walk in”.  7am-2pm.   On Monday and Friday you can call in orders for pick-up.

So I am posting this on a Thursday.. get there Today!

I (Mark) noticed the cafe last weekend when doing a drive around the area, checking on stories I am tracking…. and as I left the Edge Fitness parking lot and headed towards the pike I saw the “Coming Soon” banner on Tuckahoe Rd.  And was that a new sign on the roadside?

I popped in to catch manager Dawn working in the bakery, getting things ready for the opening this week.   But of course the weather had their own plans this week!

Dawn is an amazing person…  I quickly realized she was a very gifted baker after seeing the products she already had on display.. but the more I spoke with her, the more I realized how awesome it was that she found a way to utilize her talents to also work with people who simply need a little extra help!

Dawn explained that the bakery is part of the The ARC of Gloucester County, and they had just completed a massive remodel… the first since 1988!

The interior is bright, cheerful and inviting… and also very classy!

ARC Program individuals will benefit from all bakery profits, but also.. the ARC Individuals with disabilities will be working in the Bakery Cafe to learn skills and earn money!

Baked Goods

I was there ahead of the opening, but Dawn was already loading the shelves and bakery displays with amazing looking baked goods.

Cupcakes, Cake Pops, breads and and amazing cakes were already on display.   And she was working to fill out the displays!

Dawn tells me the bakery was famous for their Apple Jewish Cakes!    42Freeway may stop back to day to pick one up!

The chocolate cake she showed me…  wow, its as much artwork as it is a cake.  The multi-layer chocolate “sculpture” on top made it look like something we’d see on the Food Network!

The Sunshine Bakery can even make Wedding Cakes!  They are beautiful and delicious.. and what a great story to tell at your wedding, that your cake helped Individuals with disabilities!

And for the quick treat, their website shows you can buy individual cake slices, cookies, granola bars, macarons, chocolates and more!

Sunshine is also a Cafe!  You can stop in as you start your day and get a hot cup of delicious Anthony’s Coffee!

I forgot to ask details on “Anthony’s Coffee” but a quick google shows there is the famous Anthony’s on 9th St in South Philadelphia!

Delicious South Philadelphia coffee… in Washington Township?  Delicious!!

Soup Too!  Dawn also tells me they will have fresh house made soups every day, and they will be offering other lunch items!   

Oh and Boba Tea!  I think also known as Bubble-tea…  if you aren’t familiar its an Asian based drink, more of a slushy or milkshake than a tea, and refreshingly delicious!

Be aware of the hours before heading over!

If you want to “just walk in”…  Tues-Thursday are your days.   7am -2pm

On Monday and Friday you can call ahead for pick-up.

They are not open on Weekends.    But all these hours are possible to change, as Sunshine develops a following

Phone:  609-381-8908

• Monday – Online Ordering Only
• Tuesday – 7 am – 2 pm
• Wednesday – 7 am – 2 pm
• Thursday – 7 am – 2 pm
• Friday – Online Ordering Only

Contact – Location

Sunshine Bakery & Cafe 704 Tuckahoe Rd Sewell NJ 08080 609-381-8909

Facebook   LIKE THEIR PAGE!  Dawn will be posting pics of the delicious items!   Only 6 likes right now

Website (really nice site!  Gives a lot of info!)

Brand Story

With more than 90 years of bakery expertise since its early beginnings in 1930s, Sunshine Bakeries has made its mark as Singapore’s first commercial bakery which brings you the superior tasting bakery products.   As one of the biggest bread manufacturer in Singapore, Sunshine Bakeries has built its market leadership through innovation based on consumers’ needs. Innovating since 1930, we have created a range of local favourites such as our Smart-Carb® Low GI 37 Low Sugar Bread which is now Singapore’s first and lowest GI Value in the market, our most well-loved Hokkaido Milk Toast Bread and Singapore’s No.1 Wholemeal Cream Buns!   Crafted with Love using only the Finest Ingredients sourced from all over the world to provide the nutritional benefits and great tasting loaf to be enjoyed by all generations and every household! We offer a wide range of products from breads to cream buns as well as frozen pizzas and pies for every occasion.

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Moscow's High Rise Bohemia: The International Business District With No Business

• Written by Dario Goodwin
• Published on March 17, 2015

The Moscow International Business Center (Also known as Moskva-City ) was meant to be Russia ’s ticket into the Western world. First conceived in 1992, the district at the edge of Moscow’s city center is intended to contain up to 300,000 inhabitants, employees and visitors at any given moment and, when completed, will house over 4 million square meters of prime retail, hotel and office space to create what the Russian government desired most from this project: an enormous financial district that could dwarf London’s Canary Wharf and challenge Manhattan . Twenty three years later though, Moscow-based real estate company Blackwood estimates that as much as 45% of this new space is entirely vacant and rents have plummeted far below the average for the rest of Moscow. The only press Moskva-City is attracting is for tenants like the High Level Hostel , a hostel catering to backpackers and other asset-poor tourists on the 43rd floor of the Imperia Tower , with prices starting at $25.50 for a bed in a six-person room. This is not the glittering world of western high finance that was envisioned back in the post-Soviet 90s; but what has it become instead?

As one might expect from a project of this sheer ambition, Moskva-City has a troubled past. The economic crash in 2008 hit Russia hard enough to evict the previous Mayor of Moscow , Yuri Luzhkov, who had been a cheerleader for the district, and replace him with the considerably more austere Sergei Sobyanin, who famously declared that the whole idea was an “urban planning mistake.” But as recently as 2013, the Wall Street Journal was triumphantly claiming that Moskva-City had risen from the dead, citing 80% occupancy rates and glowing quotes from industry insiders claiming that Moskva-City was the "place to be." Driven by record highs in oil prices, Moscow looked poised to become the next Dubai .

Instead, Moscow is now in the grip of an economic winter prompted by western sanctions and drops in the price of oil. The large financial groupings that Moskva-City was meant to shelter have been warned off by their inability to issue credit to international markets, for example - but Moskva-City isn’t just an Empire State Building left empty by the Great Depression.

A fundamental problem that is holding Moskva back compared to the rest of Moscow is the simple fact that currently, getting to Moskva-City is nigh-on impossible at peak hours. Moscow has long been plagued with transport problems, ever since the government failed to match the dramatic expansion of the city with a dramatic expansion of the transport system after the Second World War. Despite being only 2.5 miles from the Kremlin , Moskva-City is only just inside the ring road that bounds the city center and which acts as the only real transport link to it (and as a result, is clogged by construction vehicles.) A railway and metro hub has been finished, but so far only runs a one-stop shuttle service to the closest Metro station that is actually integrated with the rest of Moscow Metro. The isolation of the outer districts is a large, negative part of the Moscow psyche, and it’s not surprising that this is driving away the globetrotting financial elite this project was meant to attract.

The project is managed by architectural practice No.6, which is a constituent part of the large Moscow based practice Mosproject-2 , which is itself a public corporation headed up by Mikhail Vasilyevich Posokhin, who is apparently the “People’s Architect of Russia.” Despite all this state involvement, the project has still managed to become bogged down in bureaucratic infighting - each lot is managed and developed individually, which has led to developers competing for occupants by slashing rates.

Much has been written about the way modern financial districts and towers that inhabit them can be unwelcoming, forbidding or even hostile by design, but the skyscrapers of Moskva-City seem even less friendly than usual. The site - a former stone quarry, chosen out of necessity as the only place in the city center where a new district could be plausibly constructed - is isolated both physically and visually, leaving the cluster a stark anomaly on the city skyline. Even the names seem more imposing than optimistic now: Imperia, City of Capitals , Steel Peak.

The Mercury City Tower , so far the tallest completed building on the site, is officially “a strong reference to Russian constructivism, [which] gives the tower a strong vertical thrust similar to the one found in New York's Chrysler building .” It would be easy to criticize the Mercury City Tower for picking ‘inspirations’ that are so totally opposed to each other - The Chrysler building the defining emblem of American pre-crash confidence and Constructivism created with the express purpose (especially architecturally) of extending the Bolshevik revolution into a social revolution - but the way they smash those two inspirations together is almost beautifully ironic.

Even though the High Level Hostel is less an asset to a financial district than it is a PR problem, it’s been a huge success since opening in September, already ranked 27th out of 766 hostels in Moscow by TripAdvisor. According to the management agency for Moskva-City , 58% of the new occupant signings this year have been non-financial, including a number of small to medium size businesses. Other areas of office space have been occupied by a restaurant and a culinary school, while another space has been redeveloped into a 6,000 seat theater.

While Moskva-City is failing to be a financial district that could take on the world, it’s inadvertently becoming a humanized space catering to the very groups that the Russian economic miracle left behind. Taking advantage of rents lower than the rest of Moscow , the world class facilities and the sheer desperation of the developers, the humanization of Moskva-City could well create the world’s first high-rise bohemia.

Of course, these are not spaces designed for a community, or even for people: these are spaces designed for money, and there’s little scope for changing something that seems so baked into the design of Moskva-City . The High Level Hostel is trading off of the irony of being a hostel in a banking tower, but it’s perfectly possible that at some point people will no longer find this joke funny (especially in a building that seems hostile to the very idea of humor). The isolation of Moskva, even though it allowed this community to spring up in the first place, is just as detrimental to a humanized district as it is to a financial one: even bohemians need to move around the city, or the district risks becoming a black-spot instead of a hot-spot.

Moskva-City’s isolation won’t last forever. The end of construction will open the roads up to traffic, and plans to properly integrate the spur lines of the Metro in this area into the wider system are well under way. The integration of the district will inevitably push up rents, and the Russian economy will eventually boom once again. When that happens, Moskva-City is prime territory to be reconquered by the giants of international finance, and it seems unlikely that the municipal or national governments would want to step in to protect this accidental district. For now, though, the towers capture perfectly this moment of Russia ’s schizophrenic understanding of its place in the world.

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Iga Swiatek’s 100 weeks as world No 1: The streak, the slams, the bagels

143 matches.

3 Grand Slams.

100 weeks as world No 1 — and counting.

Iga Swiatek, still just 22, is only the ninth player to reach the century since computerized rankings were introduced in 1975. In two stints, one of 75 weeks and one of 25 weeks, she has cemented her position as the dominant force in women’s tennis, having risen up the field at a remarkable clip since her full WTA Tour debut on December 31, 2018, in Auckland.

With the French Open starting next month — an event Swiatek has won in three of the last four years — she will be confident of extending her lead at the summit of the women’s game.

Here, The Athletic  breaks down the key moments in Swiatek’s time at the top and looks at whether anyone can end her reign any time soon.

Swiatek’s 100 weeks as world No 1 began in April 2022 after winning the Miami Open. The woman she replaced, Ashleigh Barty, had announced her retirement a couple of weeks earlier, having won the Australian Open that January. At the time, she held a 2000+ point lead over Swiatek in the rankings. It wasn’t that Swiatek hadn’t earned her place as the No 1, having won the French Open in 2020 as the unseeded world No 54, but Barty’s exit made it an unusual way to ascend to the top of the sport.

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That said, if there were any doubts about Swiatek’s status as the world’s best player, she obliterated them.

Swiatek assumed the ranking 17 wins into what would become the defining symbol of her remarkable dominance on the tour. After a defeat to Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko in Dubai, in February 2022, Swiatek went on a stunning winning streak of 37 matches, which remains the longest by a WTA player in the 21st century.

The sequence incorporated titles in Doha, Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart, Rome, and her second French Open. The run secured her position as the player to beat through summer, but it was still a big moment when Swiatek won the US Open in September 2022, for her first Grand Slam away from her favoured clay.

On top of the coveted outdoor hard-court ‘Sunshine Double’ of Indian Wells and Miami, it showed her durability across surfaces, though grass remained (and remains) trickier, with a defeat to France’s Alize Cornet at Wimbledon that year marking the end of her incredible run.

During the streak, Swiatek was taken to three sets just seven times, winning 16 sets 6-0 and 12 sets 6-1. Of her 143 matches as world No 1, she has bagelled an opponent in 36 of them — just over a quarter — and has won 39 sets 6-0.

Despite not winning the 2022 WTA Finals that November, Swiatek ended the year as the world No 1 with a win-loss ratio of 67-9. She was so dominant that she recorded the second-highest ranking points total for a single year in WTA history, second only to Serena Williams’ tally in 2013.

Her first stint ended at the 2023 US Open, with a fourth-round defeat to her nemesis Ostapenko (against whom she has a 0-4 head-to-head record). It was a big disappointment, but at 75 weeks, Swiatek had recorded the third-longest streak for a first-time world No 1 in the Open Era.

Swiatek didn’t take long to rebound and reclaim the top spot from Aryna Sabalenka, doing so by winning the WTA Finals in November 2023 in typically emphatic fashion. Swiatek defeated Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-0 in the final, having thrashed the then world No 1 Sabalenka 6-3, 6-2 in the semis. In total, Swiatek dropped 20 games in the whole tournament (four on average per match), a record since the finals introduced the round-robin format 20 years earlier.

Swiatek has remained the world No 1 since, despite exiting January’s Australian Open in the third round, sweeping aside Maria Sakkari to win Indian Wells . She currently has a very healthy lead over the No 2 Sabalenka, with a points gap of almost 3,000 points. The French Open will be key in this regard, with Swiatek defending the 2,000 points she won in claiming her third Roland Garros title last year (Sabalenka was a semi-finalist). Coco Gauff, the world No 3, is about 600 points behind Sabalenka and as a quarter-finalist at last year’s French Open, has fewer points to defend at an event where she is a former runner-up.

Swiatek is on top of the world once more - now she means to stay there

For now, Swiatek remains absolutely the player to beat.

“Onto the next one” was the hashtag Swiatek used when posting on social media on Monday about her 100 weeks at world No 1. That’s always been her attitude and so beyond her bigger targets, Swiatek’s immediate focus is the Madrid Open, which began this week.

Who would bet against it being the start of another 100 weeks at the top? She’s got some big names to catch, after all.

(Top photo: Tim Clayton/Corbis via Getty Images)

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Charlie Eccleshare is a football journalist for The Athletic, mainly covering Tottenham Hotspur. He joined in 2019 after five years writing about football and tennis at The Telegraph. Follow Charlie on Twitter @ cdeccleshare