World No.1 Iga Swiatek saved two match points to defeat No.14 Belinda Bencic 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-3 to advance to her first Wimbledon quarterfinal. The victory is Swiatek's 14th consecutive win and booked her a place in her ninth straight quarterfinal. The 21-year-old Pole is the youngest player to make the quarterfinals at all four majors since Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Swiatek will face Ukraine's Elina Svitolina for a spot in the semifinals. Svitolina endured her own dramatic victory,
defeating former No.1 Victoria Azarenka in a deciding tiebreak. Swiatek won their only previous match, a straight-sets win on the clay at 2021 Rome.
Swiatek held a 2-1 edge in the head-to-head record against Bencic, but the Swiss Olympic champion has consistently played her close, including an intense 6-3, 7-6(3) contest at the United Cup in January. Two of their three previous matches were decided by a pivotal tiebreak set.
In their first match on grass, the trend proved true once again.
How Bencic put Swiatek on the ropes: Through her first three matches at Wimbledon, Swiatek broke serve in 64 percent of her return games. She looked well on her way to maintaining that stat against Bencic early. Two double faults from Bencic in her first service game gave Swiatek three break points at 0-40, but Bencic saved all three to get on the board.
Bencic's grit was tested once again late in the set. Having already saved one set point and facing a second at 4-5, 30-40, Bencic won the biggest point of the match, setting Swiatek up with a perfectly struck drop shot and passing her down the line to save her 19th consecutive break point. She held to 5-5 and forced the tiebreak by closing out her 24th consecutive hold of serve. She had not been broken since the second round.
With confident ball-striking, Bencic raced to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreak before closing it out on her fourth set point to hand Swiatek her loss of a set at this year's Championships.
"Usually I'm using my chances," Swiatek said. "I had six break points. I felt like I'm more solid. I still lost the set.
"I didn't want to focus on that in the second and third. It stayed in my head a little bit. I felt like I should have been the one that won that set, but it doesn't work like that. I thought there's no sense to kind of think about that. I just wanted to go forward and have no regrets."
Swiatek responded immediately, breaking Bencic with a clean forehand return winner in the opening game of the second set, but Bencic kept the pressure on, breaking back to 3-all. After Bencic held to 6-5 on a netted forehand return from the World No.1, Swiatek found herself serving to stay in the Championships.
Swiatek turns the tables: Facing two match points at 15-40, Swiatek showed her champion's mettle. She saved both points with winners from both wings, holding serve to force another tiebreak after over two hours of play.
"I made two good returns, and of course I tried to make her play," Bencic said, when asked if she would play her match points differently. "She came up with a great shot. That's well done from her. I would do the same thing again.
Having kept herself in the match, Swiatek raced away with the tiebreak to take the high-quality affair into a third.
Two early break points decided the third set. Bencic earned the first chance, with Swiatek serving at 1-1, but could not convert. Swiatek converted her first chance a game later, breaking to 3-1 after Bencic struck her 10th double fault of the match. Bencic did not see another break-point chance.
Swiatek protected her lead and closed out the win with her 33rd winner after 3 hours and 3 minutes.
Key match stats: Swiatek was broken just once in the match, saving three of four break points. After seeing six break points come and go in the first set, Swiatek was two for three on break points for the remainder of the match.
While Swiatek hit nine more winners than unforced errors, Bencic hit 30 winners to 33 unforced errors. Of those 33 unforced errors, 10 were double faults.
No regrets from Bencic: "I think it was an incredible match," Bencic said. "Of course, she's No. 1 in the world so she's not going to give me the match just like that, but still, I think I threw everything I could at her and I pushed her to the limit.
"In that case, I'm super proud of how it went from my side."
Swiatek takes another step forward on grass: "For sure this match is going to give me more belief," Swiatek said. "I'm happy that it was really tight and I could still play my game.
"Belinda is a really, really great player. She likes playing on grass. She has this game style that helps her a little bit on grass. It wasn't an easy match for sure today. You saw that. I'm just happy that I won it 'cause it feels I'm going the right direction."
wtatennis.com
I don't even know how to begin describing this one. It's been several hours and I'm still processing the emotions and shock of it all.
I knew going into this match that Belinda Bencic would be Iga's toughest test of the tournament.
But I didn't think Belinda would get so close as to have Iga come back literally from the brink of defeat. And I thought this year's Roland Garros final was stressful, that had nothing on this!
I'm certain my blood pressure sky rocketed from the stress about a 100 times during this match.
The fact that Iga regrouped and won that 2nd set after losing the first having 6 breakpoint chances then losing a very close tiebreak; then losing the lead in the 2nd set and winning that final set tiebreak is testament to her incredible mental resilience this season.
The Iga of last year, or even earlier this year would have lost this match in straights. But the Iga of 2023 is really showing everyone why she has been the #1 player in the world for the past 60+ weeks.
What makes it even more impressive is that she did this on grass a surface on which she has the least amount of experience and is the least comfortable on.
Iga will next play Elina Svitolina who herself had the match of the tournament beating Azarenka in a final set super tiebreak. Svitolina is someone I have always liked, but wouldn't say followed all her matches or career all that closely over the years.
What she's doing now, having had a child in October returning to the tour in April of this year and reaching back to back quarterfinals of a Grand Slam is nothing short of astounding.
And given everything that's going on in her home country of Ukraine I have nothing but admiration and respect for her as a person and player.
She has really become the player to follow in every event she enters at the moment. Hearing her speak and watching her play is pure inspiration.
So the fact that Iga and Elina will now have to play each other for the semis makes me so conflicted and sad.
I don't want either one of their stories to end just yet at this year's Wimbledon.
It's going to be not only incredibly emotional and stressful, but absolutely gut-wrenching for whoever comes out the winner on Tuesday (ok part of that may be me projecting my own feeling because I want Iga to keep going so badly), but it all still applies.
Personally I'm hoping for a little less drama than the 4th round match.
As thrilling as it was to watch, I'm not sure my nerves will be able to take it!.
Jazda Iga!
