Top-seeded Iga Swiatek scored a comfortable straight-sets win over Indonesian wild card Janice Tjen to reach the third round of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha on Tuesday.
Playing her first match since a quarterfinal loss to eventual champion Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open, Swiatek dominated the opening set, dropping just eight points in a 6-0 win.
The second set was more competitive as Tjen displayed the form that has seen her rise from outside the top 400 at the start of the 2025 season to her current ranking of No. 46 on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz. After the players traded early breaks, Swiatek broke in the eighth game and held to close out a 6-0, 6-3 victory in 1 hour, 9 minutes.
23: Swiatek improved to 23 career match-wins combined in Doha and Dubai. Only former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki has more (25) since the WTA 1000 format was introduced in 2009.
31: Swiatek has won 31 consecutive WTA-level matches against players ranked outside the top 20. Her last loss to a player outside the top 20 came in Rome last May, when she fell to Danielle Collins in the round of 32.
32: Swiatek extended her streak of consecutive opening-match wins at WTA 1000 events to 32. Her last opening-match loss at a WTA 1000 came in Cincinnati in 2021 against Ons Jabeur
36: Swiatek recorded her 36th 6-0 set at WTA 1000 events, the most by any player since the format’s introduction in 2009. When asked if she ever thought about giving away a game to her opponents when it comes to such situations, Swiatek responded, "I think when I was younger, I felt that way, but later on, you just want to win it. It's sports. It doesn't make sense to stop or to play 80%. I'm there to perform my best, so I felt always that you wouldn't be respectful towards the opponent if give them something, because we're here to play our best. I always try to just focus on myself and that's it."
72: Swiatek is now 72-0 in opening matches across her last 72 WTA events played, including the United Cup and WTA Finals. Her last opening match loss at a WTA event came against Maria Sakkari at the 2021 WTA Finals in Guadalajara.
"It's always nice to start a tournament in a solid way and I'm ready for every match," Swiatek said when asked about this streak by the media in Doha. "I think that's the reason for that. I don't take anything for granted, so even first rounds or second rounds, I treat them as super important matches and as a challenge. So I'm ready for it from the beginning."
Swiatek will next face former top-10 player Daria Kasatkina in the Round of 16. The Australian scored a 6-4, 6-0 win over 16h seed Elise Mertens of Belgium earlier in the day.
Swiatek leads the head-to-head 6-1 over Kasatkina and has won their last six meetings without dropping a set. But she is not taking the match lightly.
"Honestly I try not to think about head-to-head because every match is a different story," Swiatek said. "She can come to the match feeling that she has nothing to lose. There are different ways the match can go, and I wouldn't say that focusing on the last results gives a lot. I'd rather stay ready for the challenge and not really think about the previous ones."
No comments:
Post a Comment