No. 7 seed Iga Swiatekand No. 5 seed Elina Svitolina kept their bids for a spot at the WTA Finals alive with second-round wins at the Dongfeng • Voyah Wuhan Open on Wednesday, albeit in contrasting fashion.
Swiatek had the easier path, scoring a 6-2, 6-1 win over fellow Polish player Magdalena Frech in 1 hour, 43 minutes. The victory was her 40th of the season on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz and her 149th in WTA 1000 events, moving her past Serena Williams (148) into outright seventh place on the all-time list since the format's introduction in 2009.
"I'm happy to get the first match on the center court because I didn't get a chance to play there before," Swiatek told the media after her win. "At the beginning of the match, it was point by point, but then I was happy that I started making less mistakes and I used my chances till the end of the match. For sure it was tougher than the score."
With her second win in as many meetings against the World No. 56, Swiatek improved to 19-2 against opponents ranked outside the top 50 this season. Her only two losses have come against No. 52 Maria Sakkari in Doha and No. 121 Zheng Qinwen at the US Open.
Swiatek has also recorded at least 40 wins in a season for the fifth consecutive year, a run of consistency she is pleased with.
"I mean every year has been so much different that there's no like recipe or solution," Swiatek said. "I'm happy that even though every year was different and presented different challenges, I'm able to be consistent and for sure this one has been.. toughest so still getting every win means a lot and you know I'll try to have as many as possible obviously."
Swiatek believes this season has been particularly challenging and she reflected on what she has learned from the struggles.
"Probably the biggest lesson will be that nothing will come easy because you know it kind of has been pretty up in my career going like always forward a little bit," she said. "When when I had some bad periods, I suddenly won something and I felt great. This year it's been a bit tougher. I think I will learn to have more grit and to find also little successes, not only be happy with the results, but also with the process and everything."
Swiatek will next face either Ashlyn Kruegeror Lanlana Tararudee. It would be her first meeting with either player.
Swiatek had the easier path, scoring a 6-2, 6-1 win over fellow Polish player Magdalena Frech in 1 hour, 43 minutes. The victory was her 40th of the season on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz and her 149th in WTA 1000 events, moving her past Serena Williams (148) into outright seventh place on the all-time list since the format's introduction in 2009.
"I'm happy to get the first match on the center court because I didn't get a chance to play there before," Swiatek told the media after her win. "At the beginning of the match, it was point by point, but then I was happy that I started making less mistakes and I used my chances till the end of the match. For sure it was tougher than the score."
Swiatek has also recorded at least 40 wins in a season for the fifth consecutive year, a run of consistency she is pleased with.
"I mean every year has been so much different that there's no like recipe or solution," Swiatek said. "I'm happy that even though every year was different and presented different challenges, I'm able to be consistent and for sure this one has been.. toughest so still getting every win means a lot and you know I'll try to have as many as possible obviously."
Swiatek believes this season has been particularly challenging and she reflected on what she has learned from the struggles.
"Probably the biggest lesson will be that nothing will come easy because you know it kind of has been pretty up in my career going like always forward a little bit," she said. "When when I had some bad periods, I suddenly won something and I felt great. This year it's been a bit tougher. I think I will learn to have more grit and to find also little successes, not only be happy with the results, but also with the process and everything."
Swiatek will next face either Ashlyn Kruegeror Lanlana Tararudee. It would be her first meeting with either player.
wtatennis.com
This was a bit of a weird one, a very misleading one sided score line while the match was quite the opposite.
Seemed like at times Iga really couldn't decide whether to be passive or aggressive, but slowly figured it out.
I'm gonna chuck it up to Iga getting used to the conditions of the court. To the naked eye the court looks quite slow.
Hopefully she'll play better in her next match as she'll have to make adjustments again playing her first night match of the tournament.
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