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.
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment