Iga Swiatek addresses fan criticism after Dubai final loss

This is why I'm always careful when writing direct replies. 

It's so easy to say anything these days from behind a screen but so many forget that it goes out into the world and hurts people. 

I hope this makes her fans think the next time they feel like criticizing from their couch.

Iga Swiatek makes it 6 WTA 1000 finals, a first in Dubai

Iga cutting the cake celebrating the 50th year of the WTA

No.1 seed Iga Swiatek continued her dominance of No.5 seed Coco Gauff in the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships semifinals, winning 6-4, 6-2 in 1 hour and 28 minutes.

Swiatek has yet to lose a set to Gauff in six meetings to date. The Pole advances to her 15th career final, and ninth at WTA 1000 level or above. She improves her undefeated record in WTA 1000 semifinals to 6-0, and extends her active winning streak to six following her successful title defence last week in Doha.

Since Swiatek's fourth-round loss at the Australian Open to Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, the World No.1 has dropped just 14 games in six matches. But this was her tightest of those contests by some distance, and the only one in which Swiatek has not won a 6-0 or 6-1 set. Gauff also managed to win more games than she has managed in any encounter with Swiatek since their first, where she fell 7-6(3), 6-3 at Rome 2021.

Swiatek will face either No.3 seed Jessica Pegula, whom she defeated 6-3, 6-0 in the Doha final last week, or former Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova in the final. Last October in Ostrava, Krejcikova snapped Swiatek's 10-match winning streak in finals with a 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-3 upset.

How the match was won: Swiatek's strategy of engaging the American in forehand-to-forehand exchanges is one that's served her well in all their meetings to date, and she deployed it again from the very first point of the match.

Keen to avoid it, Gauff went for bigger shots earlier in rallies on her backhand side, resulting in several fizzing winners. But more often than not, Swiatek's heavy first strikes enabled her to set the pace, and pummeling the Gauff forehand garnered her the first break of the match for 2-1. Of Gauff's 20 unforced errors in the first set, 16 came from the forehand side.

Swiatek played her shakiest match of the Middle East swing to date, with some uncharacteristically loose games scattered throughout. She failed to serve out the first set at her first attempt due to a slew of backhand mistakes; and up 4-1 in the second, a pair of double faults cost her one of her breaks.

But these were only blips. Swiatek closed out the opening set on her fifth set point after a high-octane baseline rally ended with another Gauff forehand error; and a stellar pass enabled her to break Gauff again for 5-2 in the second set before serving out the match with ease.

In Swiatek's words: "I'm pretty happy that tennis is working out, because writing and talking -- not my thing right now!" said Swiatek, whose post-match camera message involved much crossing out and restarting, and whose on-court interview was punctuated by coughing.

"Coco is a great player and I knew it was going to be tough. Especially after last year when we played five times, because you never know if you're going to see something new or not."

As for what the troublesome message said in the end?

"I heard that my dad is going to come to the final, and I wanted make sure that he will, because it's not often that he comes to matches. I wanted to pressure him!"

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The fact that Iga losing more than a few games is made into a big deal just shows what exceptional level she's currently at. 

She has set her own standards so  extraordinarily high since losing in Australia that now people are literally expecting her to win everything with ease. 

But in reality she's still only human, and really the fact that she has been able to play like this while battling what seems to be a very nasty cold just makes everything all the more impressive. 

So now the 2022 Ostrava final rematch is set. 

It'll be Swiatek vs Krejcikova once more, last time it was a 3 hour marathon that went Krejcikova's way. 

Oddly/unfortunately enough Iga was battling a cold in that as well. 

But it's a new match, a different time of year, with Iga once again reasserting herself. 

I don't want to jinx it, but my gut tells me Iga might get her revenge. 

Ostrava was voted as WTA's match of the year last season, and something tells me we may have a new contender tomorrow. 

One more push to the finish. 

Jazda!

Iga Swiatek sweeps aside Samsonova in Dubai once again reaches semis via walkover

 

World No.1 Iga Swiatek swept into the quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday, besting No.14 seed Liudmila Samsonova 6-1, 6-0 in their Round of 16 showdown.

Swiatek has won her past five matches, including a successful title defense at Doha last week. But this will be Swiatek's first appearance in the Dubai quarterfinals -- last year, she lost in the second round to eventual champion Jelena Ostapenko.

Fast facts: In their lone previous meeting, Samsonova pushed Swiatek to three sets in a three-hour Stuttgart semifinal last year before Swiatek prevailed to maintain her undefeated 2022 clay-court season.

This time around, Swiatek had a far easier time, dropping only a single game en route to the 76-minute win. Swiatek finished the match with 18 winners to just six unforced errors, and she never faced a break point. Swiatek is now 35-0 at WTA 1000 events after she wins the first set.

Key moments: Samsonova hung with Swiatek in a number of long games, but the top seed ended up on the winning end of almost all of them, gritting out a tough hold for 2-1, then breaking for 3-1 after Samsonova held game point.

Another break for 5-1 followed, where Swiatek erased a Samsonova game point once again. In the next game, Swiatek fired a backhand winner to convert her first set point.

Swiatek took command for good by grinding through a break for 3-0 in the second set, converting her sixth break point of that titanic game. Swiatek won the last 11 games in a row to take the victory.

Pliskova gives Swiatek walkover into semifinals: Swiatek was scheduled to take on former Dubai finalist Karolina Pliskova in Thursday's quarterfinals, following Pliskova's Round of 16 win over Anhelina Kalinina.

But later on Wednesday evening, Pliskova withdrew from the event due to viral illness.

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There are an awful lot of withdraws with viral illness in this (and previous tournaments)  which is worrying. 

Iga herself sounds quite a bit under the weather with a very raspy voice due to a persistent cough. 

Yet despite that she's sweeping away the competition in a mighty impressive fashion. Just like last year in the Middle East she has hit quite the purple patch. 

Here's is hoping it carries her all the way to the title. 

Honestly as long as she feels good and stays at this level I don't see why she can't make it a Middle Eastern double (even if she does end up having to play Sabalenka in the final).

Jazda!

Iga Swiatek continues her run from Doha into Dubai

World No.1 Iga Swiatek eased to a 6-1, 6-1 win over 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Tuesday.

Less than three days after rolling to her second straight title, at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open in Doha, Swiatek sailed to a 72-minute victory to improve to 2-0 against Fernandez.

Here's more from Swiatek's fourth win in four matches in the Middle East swing:

Staying perfect: Swiatek not only stayed unbeaten against Fernandez with the victory, but also against Canadians. She's now 4-0 against players from Canada in her career.

Swiatek's last win against Fernandez, a 6-2, 6-1 triumph in Adelaide last year, also lasted 72 minutes. She won the first four games of Tuesday's encounter and avoided an early pitfall in the second set. Serving at 2-1, and up a break, Swiatek saved two break points in the fourth game that would've seen Fernandez get even in the match for the first time.

A quick turnaround: Not only did Swiatek rise to the occasion against a dangerous foe, she also had to adjust to faster court speeds than the ones she won on last week.

"It wasn't that easy for sure. It was much tougher than the score said," Swiatek said, calling the courts a similar speed to the Australian Open. "In the second set. ... I needed to go a level up. I didn't have much time to get used to the conditions, but I'm just happy I could play solid tennis."

Third time's the charm? Swiatek is through to Round 3 in Dubai for the second time in three career appearances. However, she's never gone further. To do so, she'll have to beat recent Abu Dhabi finalist Liudmila Samsonova, who advanced Tuesday without hitting a ball after Zheng Qinwen withdrew from their Round 2 match with abdominal pain.

Swiatek and Samsonova have played once previously, where Samsonova was the 22nd win in Swiatek's 37-match winning streak a year ago. She came from a set down to beat Samsonova 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-5 in the semifinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, a match that lasted over three hours.

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Iga Swiatek defends Doha, wins 12th career title

 

World No.1 Iga Swiatek successfully defended her title at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open on Saturday, sweeping past fourth-ranked Jessica Pegula 6-3, 6-0 in the Doha final.


No.1 seed Swiatek topped No.2 seed Pegula to capture her first Hologic WTA Tour title of the year, and the 12th title of her career overall. Swiatek dropped only five games all week en route to the title.


"I'm really happy that I could kind of find more balance, comparing to how I felt at the beginning of the season," Swiatek said, after her win. "I think this tournament is going to give me a lot of confidence, but still, I want to take everything step by step. I'm just really happy that I could win this match today."


Fast facts: Swiatek had already lost to Pegula this year at United Cup, but the No.1 seed overwhelmingly avenged that defeat in the 1-hour and 9-minute Doha final. Swiatek now holds a 5-2 lead over Pegula in their head-to-head.

For the second year in a row, Doha is the site of Swiatek’s first title of the season. Last year, her Doha title run was the start of something big -- a 37-match winning streak, culminating in her second Grand Slam title at Roland Garros.

Swiatek also becomes the first player to defend a Hologic WTA Tour singles title since she won her second straight Rome title in May of last year.

"Every game I was really focused, and that's the thing I'm most happy about, because at the beginning of the season I felt like my mind was kind of flying away sometimes," Swiatek said. "But here, the work we have put in with my coach on court and with Daria off the court, for sure, it just paid off, and I felt like everything is clicking."

Match moments: Swiatek used heavy replies off of the Pegula service to go up a break at both 2-0 and 4-2, but Pegula immediately broke back each time, forcing Swiatek into errors by using her exceptional speed to extend rallies.

Nevertheless, the top seed again attacked the Pegula delivery with more thunderous returns to break for a 5-3 lead. This time, Swiatek would not be pulled back level, as she powered to a love hold to take the one-set lead.

After a close opening set, Swiatek had things almost entirely her own way in the second set. Swiatek won 73 percent of points returning Pegula's second service in the match, leading to six service breaks on the day.

"Yesterday it kind of hit me that even though it's windy, I can use the wind properly and kind of use my intuition to sometimes imagine that I should play shorter, or on the other hand, play with more topspin so the wind is going to kind of take this ball even further," Swiatek said.

"So today I just kind of continued that, but I didn't really want to overanalyze that, and I just kind of played how my intuition told me. It's nice, because usually I'm basing everything on my tactics and on the technique that I'm working on. But here I felt like I could just reset that and play more freely without overthinking."

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Another masterclass from Iga. 

I will give Pegula credit she really made Iga work for it especially in the first set with constantly breaking back whenever Iga forged ahead. 

And even at match point it took Iga 4 tries to get over the line. 

In set 2 Iga just took it to another level as she always seems to be able to do in finals. And it takes something really special to stop her (as Krejcikova did in a titanic 3 hour battle in Ostrava last year).

She lost just 5 games en route to this triumph (a record that hasn't been seen in a significant number of years). 

And already notched 3 bagel sets for the year (I believe it's 5 over all with the Australian swing). 

Just otherworldly stuff from the World #1.

Onward to Dubai!. 

Where Iga has a pretty tough draw, and we'll see the return of Sabalenka. 

But honestly with this sort of level from Iga, I say good luck WTA Tour. 

Jazda!

Iga Swiatek sweeps past Kudermetova faces Pegula in Doha final

World No.1 and defending champion Iga Swiatek returned to the final of the Qatar TotalEnergies Open with a commanding 6-0, 6-1 win over No.8 seed Veronika Kudermetova in Friday's semifinals.

Swiatek is through to her first final of 2023 as a result of the victory, and she'll bid for her 12th career title on Saturday against No.2 seed Jessica Pegula.

Swiatek stays dominant: Swiatek improved to 3-0 all-time against Kudermetova with a 56-minute victory in Doha. Swiatek has lost just eight games in six sets in the head-to-head, and also lost just one game in their third-round meeting in Indian Wells a year ago.

Swiatek coped with blustery conditions the better of the two players. She hit 14 winners to five unforced errors, breaking Kudermetova's serve five times. Kudermetova hit just four winners to 15 unforced errors, and never earned a break point.

"I was pretty worried about how I was going to compete with the conditions today, so I'm glad that I could play the smart way," Swiatek said in victory. "I'm pretty happy that I was so solid."

Swiatek has lost just two games in two completed matches in Doha. She beat 2022 Australian Open finalist Danielle Collins by an identical score to her win against Kudermetova in Round 2, and benefitted from a walkover from Belinda Bencic in the quarterfinals.

No.1 vs. No.2 up next: Swiatek will meet No.2 seed Pegula in Saturday's final after the top-ranked American edged Maria Sakkari in three sets in Friday's other semifinal.

Swiatek leads the pair's all-time head-to-head 4-2, but Pegula won their first meeting in 2023 last month at the United Cup.

"It always takes a lot to win against Jessie. She's a great player, a really solid one," Swiatek said. "We'll see, honestly. I'm not going to predict anything or over-analyze. I'm just going to go out and play my best tennis, and we'll see."

Hoping for a repeat: Swiatek is bidding to be the first player to defend a title on the Hologic WTA Tour in 2023. She, in fact, was the last player to complete the feat at last year's Internazional BNL d'Italia in Rome.

wtatennis.com

Rematch and revenge.

Time to tick that H2H against Pegula further in your favor. 

Jazda Iga!

 

Iga Swiatek breezes past Collins makes semis of Doha via walkover

World No.1 Iga Swiatek made a triumphant return to competition at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open. Swiatek raced past No.42 Danielle Collins 6-0, 6-1 and is into the semifinals after her quarterfinal opponent Belinda Bencic withdrew from the tournament due to fatigue.



Last season, Swiatek kicked off her 37-match win streak in Doha, where she captured her first WTA 1000 hard-court title. Playing her first match since the Australian Open, the reigning champion showed no signs of rust against Collins, as she built a 3-0 lead after just 10 minutes and pocketed the opening set in just 21 minutes.

"[I felt] pretty confident," Swiatek told reporters. "I'm happy that I was kind of composed and from the beginning till the end pretty focused and disciplined with tactics.

"I didn't really let Danielle get into the rhythm. I wanted to be aggressive. I'm pretty happy that I did that well."

With the American struggling to find her range, Swiatek lost just four points in the opening set. In the face of Swiatek's dynamic defending and pin-point serving, Collins was unable to hit a winner in the opening set, while misfiring on 13 unforced errors.

Collins leveled up in the second set, snapping Swiatek's nine-game run to get on the board at 3-1. But Swiatek refused to let her own level drop, as she steadily marched toward the finish line to seal the win after 53 minutes.

Key stats: Swiatek finished the match with eight winners to just six unforced errors, breaking Collins' serve five times. She did not face a break point in the match. Collins matched Swiatek with eight winners, but tallied 22 unforced errors in the match. She won just 31.6% of her first-serve points.

Up next: Swiatek was set to face Bencic in Thursday's quarterfinals, but the Abu Dhabi champion withdrew from the tournament after notching a physical, hard-fought victory over Victoria Azarenka.

Swiatek will now face either No.4 seed Coco Gauff or Veronika Kudermetova in the semifinals on Friday.

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Safe to say Iga's reset since Australia has been a resounding success. and she's back to dazzling form once more. 

I am constantly amazed how well she handles disappointments and loss, goes right back to work, and comes back stronger than before.