No.1 Iga Swiatek handled the tricky challenge of Yulia Putintseva with poise, advancing to her fourth quarterfinal of the year 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and 47 minutes. She was followed on Center Court by No.2 Petra Kvitova, who was stretched all the way by qualifier Anastasia Potapova before winning 6-1, 6-7(4), 6-3 in two hours and five minutes.
Playing the second indoor WTA main draw of her career following Budapest 2019, where she reached the second round, Swiatek was given a tough workout by Putintseva, whom she was facing for the first time. The Kazakh was coming off a strong semifinal run in Portoroz last week, and her canny tactics and supreme defence provided a worthy foil to Swiatek's power.
Both players probing each other's games for weaknesses made for a number of absorbing, variety-filled exchanges in which every corner of the court was used. But although Putintseva's ability to mix spin, pace and direction tested Swiatek to the limit, the Pole remained positive and gradually got to grips with what she needed to do. By the second set, it was Swiatek who was increasingly emerging on top of even the longer rallies.
Match management: Putintseva had battled for three hours and 24 minutes to quell Zhang Shuai in the first round just 24 hours earlier, and was uncharacteristically errant as she swiftly fell behind 0-3. But once the 26-year-old found her groove and levelled at 3-3, almost every game was tightly contested.
It came down to Swiatek's ability to rise to the occasion at the tail end of each set, both of which she sealed with a break of her opponent's serve. She peaked with some dazzling all-court aggression to rattle off the last eight points of the first set, scoring winners at net and, on set point, off the return.
In the second, Swiatek showed her grit. Leading 3-2, she missed triple break point to break Putintseva; at 4-4, she had to fend off two against her, coming up with her fourth ace and a brace of brilliant backhand winners to do so. The final game saw Putintseva open the door with a pair of loose errors, and Swiatek needed no further encouragement. Two more backhand bangers in a row saw her edge over the line.
Quotable: "It was very tough," said Swiatek in her on-court interview. "She was running to every ball - it was really hard to finish her, especially with such a slow surface. She could reach everything and she was fighting to the end - even on match point I had to finish her, like, three times.
"I'm really happy I won, because normally it's really hard for me to play with such players. I like to risk and with risking comes unforced errors, so it's tough to get the balance between when to push and when to stay and wait for the opponent to miss."
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