Iga Swiatek makes a winning tournament debut in Montreal

World No.1 Iga Swiatek won her opening match for the 30th consecutive time. Her latest was a 7-6 (6), 6-2 victory against Karolina Pliskova on Wednesday at the Omnium Banque Nationale in Montreal.

If she prevails on Thursday against Karolina Muchova and advances to the quarterfinals at the Omnium National Bank event, Swiatek will retain the top ranking for a 72nd week. Muchova, the No.14 seed Karolina Muchova, was a 7-5, 6-4 winner over Sorana Cirstea. This is an appealing rematch of the three-set final earlier this year at Roland Garros. The head-to-head record is 1-all.

"Well, for sure it's nice to have some challenges and overcome them," Swiatek said in press after her match. "It wasn't an easy first round, but I'm happy that I stayed solid, and I could close it in the first set because after having -- I played two weeks ago in Warsaw, but still, I changed continents."

This match featured some heavy hitting from both players. Swiatek scrambled to force a tiebreak and escaped when Pliskova produced two errant forehands in the 62-minute session. The No.23-ranked Pliskova was a first-round, three-set winner over Zhu Lin.

Swiatek, making her tournament debut at this event, collected her Hologic WTA Tour-leading 48th victory, against only seven losses. This was the 22-year-old’s sixth consecutive win after winning her hometown tournament in Warsaw -- and the second win of the year over Pliskova, going back to a title run in Stuttgart.

The key statistic: Swiatek forced eight break-point opportunities and converted five.

Pliskova, who has weathered an uneven year, was the Montreal runner-up two years ago and reached the 2022 semifinals in Toronto. The 31-year-old from the Czech Republic has now lost eight of her past 10 matches.

For Swiatek, she now has to shift her focus to a rematch with Muchova.

"So I think any way we have to be ready for the next match and kind of expect that anything can happen because tennis can be pretty unpredictable," Swiatek said. "You know, one player can have a bad day. At the same time the other one can play the best tennis of their life."

wtatennis.com