Iga Swiatek gets the better of Wozniacki who retires mid match due to foot injury at Indian Wells

 

World No.1 Iga Swiatek moved into her third consecutive BNP Paribas Open semifinal after former World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki retired from their quarterfinal match on Thursday, due to a right foot injury. The final score was 6-4, 1-0, ret.

Swiatek, the 2022 Indian Wells champion, battled back from 4-1 down in the opening set to clinch the one-set lead. Wozniacki, who won the Indian Wells title back in 2011, took a medical time-out for her foot between sets, and the Dane made it only one more game before ending the match.

"I'm hoping that Caroline will be better and she'll be ready for Miami," Swiatek said, after the match. "It's not the best way to win.

"But I'm happy that I played well enough in first set to win it. For sure it was tight. At the beginning we had many longer rallies, so I felt like I needed to be solid and be ready. At the end I'm happy that I used the chances in the last games."

Champs' clash truncated: It was a sudden conclusion to an anticipated match between two Grand Slam champions. Swiatek and Wozniacki had only played once before; Swiatek won 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in their previous meeting at Toronto in 2019, when Wozniacki was ranked No.18 and Swiatek No.65.

Wozniacki, who was contesting her first WTA quarterfinal in four years, looked sharp in the opening games, as she sought her first win over a reigning World No.1 since she defeated Simona Halep to win her lone Grand Slam title at the 2018 Australian Open.

The 33-year-old mother-of-two, who returned from a three-year maternity leave last summer, saved three break points in her first service game. Wozniacki then used a strong angled return to break for a 3-1 lead, and a quick consolidation followed, giving Wozniacki the 4-1 lead. But Swiatek's heavy hitting helped her get the break back two games later, and the top seed also prevailed in a lengthy ninth game, converting her fourth break point of that tussle to lead 5-4.

Swiatek won her fifth straight game with an ace, closing out the set in emphatic fashion before Wozniacki's injury stopped the clash shortly thereafter, following 65 minutes of play.

Kostyuk awaits: Swiatek will take on No.31 seed Marta Kostyuk in Friday's semifinals. Swiatek defeated Kostyuk in their only previous meeting, notching a 6-3, 6-4 victory over the Ukrainian in the Round of 16 at 2021 Roland Garros.

The 21-year-old Kostyuk booked a spot in her first career WTA 1000 semifinal with a 6-0, 7-5 win over No.28 seed Anastasia Potapova on Thursday. It was Kostyuk's first win in three career meetings with Potapova.

"I practiced with [Swiatek] in Doha, I was really looking forward to actually playing her in the match," Kostyuk said, looking ahead to the semis. "I think it will be a great match.

"I don't know what else to say, because I'm excited, and I played her in Paris three years ago, and it was a bit different match. We were both in different positions. Even more exciting now."

wtatennis.com

The first set was a really fun tussle, I admit I didn't give Wozniacki enough credit. I honestly thought Iga would just blow her off the court. 

But she really held her own with her trademark retrieval skills. 

Frustrating Iga making her hit some errors and even getting ahead in the set. 

I'm actually really disappointed she had to retire due to an injury, because I was looking forward to Iga solving the puzzle in the 2nd set. 

As she herself mentioned in her post match interview there were some things she was going to implement in set 2 that she didn't get to. 

I wouldn't mind if these 2 met again at some point this season.

Kostyuk next for Iga. She's playing well and it'll be their first meeting on a hard court. Could be a good one if both play at a high level.

So that's a 3rd consecutive semi final at Indian Wells. 

There's always so much talk about Iga's biggest rivels Sabalenka and Rybakina, but never enough about just how consistent she is at these events (at only 22!). 

It is extremely impressive, the stuff of legends really. Feels like she doesn't get enough credit for just how hard that is. 

What better way to end this post then with some more OptaAce fun because Iga just loves adding to it :)

9 - Iga Swiatek has won her last nine meetings against former World No. 1 - her last such defeat was back in January 2022 in Adelaide vs Ashleigh Barty. Status.


88.9% - Among players with at least 15 matches in Indian Wells, only Steffi Graf (89.5%) has a highest winning percentage than Iga Swiatek (88.9%, 16-2) at this event. Fabulous.

14 - Iga Swiatek is the player with the fewest games lost en route to make the semi-finals in Indian Wells (14) since 2008 (Jelena Jankovic, 12). Path.

3 - Iga Swiatek has become the fourth player to make three consecutive semi-finals appearances in Indian Wells since the inception of the tournament in 1989 after Lindsay Davenport, Martina Hingis and Maria Sharapova. Treble.


In completed matches before the semis, she's — 32-0 since the start of 2023 — 48-2 since the start of 2022 That's 13 semifinals in the last 16 events, across 3 seasons.


3rd straight Indian Wells SF 6th straight WTA 1000 SF 14th WTA 1000 SF overall


Also this happened during the men's quarterfinals:

And it ended with this amusing exchange from Iga at the press conference: