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.
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment