TORONTO — The “Iga, Iga, Iga” chants started after the third point of the match.

They just kept coming on Thursday night as Iga Swiatek completed a long-awaited return to top form.

With the Polish community here leading the cheers, the seventh-seeded Swiatek captured her first WTA tournament title of the year with a 6-2, 6-3 demolition of No. 2 Elena Rybakina at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers.

A six-time Grand Slam winner, Swiatek has been well off her usual standards this year. She hadn’t even played in a final in 2026 before this week. Her last tournament win was at last year’s Cincinnati Open, the event that follows the NBO.

Swiatek turned things around at the Canadian WTA Tour 1000 event. The win over Rybakina was Swiatek’s fourth top-20 victory of the week, the most in a tournament since she won the 2024 French Open.

In the first NBO women’s final between multiple Grand Slam champs since 1999, Swiatek took charge early against the harder-hitting player from Kazakhstan.

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.

Another break followed to give 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 on Thursday, allowing Swiatek to stay in points. On Rybakina’s two break-point chances 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.

Swiatek recorded her third break of the match to go up 3-2 in the second set and rolled home from there. She was 4-for-5 on break points after finishing 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, over three hours more than Swiatek. The runner-up didn’t finish off the second semifinal against Coco Gauff until nearly 1 a.m. ET early Thursday morning, giving Rybakina less time to regroup ahead of the 6 p.m. final.

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.