Iga Swiatek notches first win of 2022 in Adelaide

Defending champion Iga Swiatek got her 2022 season off to a flying start Tuesday with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over homeland hope Daria Saville in the first round of the Adelaide International 1.

Swiatek, the World No.9 from Poland, needed 79 minutes to dispatch the former Top 20 player Saville (née Gavrilova), who was playing her first event after her off-season marriage to ATP pro Luke Saville.

Fast facts: Saville missed almost all of last year due to an Achilles injury but has a long list of top-tier victories in her history, with 11 Top 10 wins to her credit. However, the Aussie qualifier was unable to add a win over Swiatek to her ledger in their first meeting.

Swiatek, at age 20 the youngest player in the Top 10, won this title last year without dropping a set. That was her first hard-court title and second title overall, following the 2020 Roland Garros championship (which she also won without dropping a set). Swiatek is now 11-0 in Tale of the match: Swiatek fell behind an early break at 2-1 in the opening set, but the No.5 seed won five of the next six games to recover her bearings and take the one-set lead.

It was even easier for Swiatek in the second set, where she never faced a break point. The Pole finished up the match with a 76 percent success rate returning the Saville second serve, which likely pressured the Aussie into double faults on the last two points of the clash.

"I just focused on my game and being on court," Swiatek said in her post-match press conference. "I wanted to implement some stuff that I practiced here. It went out pretty well, so I'm pretty happy. It was solid match, so it's a good start."

Next up: Another skyrocketing youngster awaits Swiatek in the second round. Canadian teen Leylah Fernandez will be Swiatek’s next opponent, after Fernandez charged past Ekaterina Alexandrova on Monday.

This will be the first professional meeting between the two, though they met once in juniors, with Swiatek taking a straight-sets win in 2015. Both would go on to win junior Grand Slam singles titles: Swiatek at 2018 Wimbledon, and Fernandez at 2019 Roland Garros.

wtatennis.com

Great way to start off a new year. Iga clearly feels very comfortable in Adelaide and it's freeing up her game.