No.7 seed Iga Swiatek wrapped up an impressive first week at the Australian Open with a 6-2, 6-3 win over No.25 seed Daria Kasatkina, though the scoreline does not reflect the toughness of the 1-hour, 34-minute battle.
Former Roland Garros champion Swiatek's clutch performance on important points puts her into the second week of a sixth successive major, and third Australian Open in a row. The 20-year-old has reached at least the fourth round in nine of the 12 Grand Slams she has contested. In Melbourne this week, she has yet to lose more than five games in any of her matches.
The result was revenge for the pair's only previous meeting, in the second round of Eastbourne last year. That was the fourth WTA main draw match on grass of Swiatek's career, and Kasatkina exposed that inexperience with a 4-6, 6-0, 6-1 victory.
Match management: Though Swiatek finished with more winners than Kasatkina (24 to 13) and fewer unforced errors (35 to 37), the story of the match lay in how both players dealt with the tightest passages of play.
In total, there were eight games that went to at least one deuce. Swiatek won all five in the first set, and two out of three in the second. She also converted four out of eight break points, while saving eight of nine against her. Consequently, although the competitiveness of any given game was closer than the final scoreline suggests, the Pole had an iron grip of scoreboard momentum throughout.
Kasatkina came up with several moments of magic - feathery touch on volleys, some superb defence-into-offence counterpunching - but was unable to translate that often enough into winning games. By contrast, Swiatek's finest striking, particularly on a forehand that garnered her 12 winners, frequently came at the sharp end of those long deuce tussles.
Swiatek on tactics: "For sure, that was really intense match," she said afterwards. "I feel like I'm playing better and better every match, so that's positive. "Tactically, I did a pretty good job of not letting her use her topspin on the forehand, and I'm glad that I was the first one to switch the direction maybe to the line so I could have more initiative.
Swiatek on her fourth-round streak: "I'm aware, and that gave me a little bit of doubt before the match," she said. "That was another thing that I had to overcome, because I wanted to at least do the same result as I did in previous years. But it's not a good way to focus on that. I am pretty proud that today I could overcome that attitude of looking to my past achievement. Because right now I'm kind of in a different tennis life. I switched my coach, I'm focusing on different stuff, and I'm trying to only look on the positives and on what's going to be forward.
"That was my goal for last year, to have consistency. [Now] I want to have some tournaments that I'm going to really make something bigger than fourth round at. But on the other hand I don't want to focus on that, because I'm pretty good right now at just looking at another match, another step."
Swiatek's fourth-round opponent will be the unseeded Sorana Cirstea, who upset No.10 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in 1 hour and 42
Well this was fun. I think Iga's new coach has really ignited her fighting spirit, and reminded her to be less passive and more aggressive as she was when she won Roland Garros 2 years ago.
The variety with drop shots in set 2 was inspired. Going to be interesting to see how she handles another veteran player she's never faced before. Jazda Iga!
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