Iga Swiatek knew what she needed to do against Elina Svitolina at the National Bank Open on Wednesday night to reach her first final on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz in nearly a year.
Facing a third set against the Ukrainian for a third time in three 2026 meetings, Swiatek found "the right rhythm" to complete her first win against Svtiolina in those three matches, as well as advance to her 14th career WTA 1000 final, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.The six-time Grand Slam singles champion admitted to losing her grip on the level that nabbed her an early lead in the rain-delayed semifinal match, which started nearly an hour later than expected. But after letting Svitolina "play her game" in the second set and early in the third, Swiatek was happy with how she settled down to come from a break down in the decider and complete the victory in 2 hours and 17 minutes.
"Against Elina, it's always tough, so I'm happy that I won this one," Swiatek said in her post-match press conference. "Especially that I came back in the third set playing better. So that's for sure a big improvement.
"Mostly I just wanted to adjust the quality. Because tactics can't do much if you're just not hitting the ball right. I knew I can do it, because I did it in the first set. I had it in me ... I'm happy that I was patient enough to do that and didn't get disappointed or didn't give up, and just found a way to play better in the third."
Increasing pace and depth helped, she said. Swiatek nearly matched her total of winners in the first two sets combined (14) with her third-set total (13).
"If I want to win a semifinal where you know your opponent is playing good, I need to step up, and there's no looking back," she said. "You kind of start from the beginning when we start the third set. It doesn't matter what happened in the second, I know what to do in the third, and I just needed to follow that."
After failing to win a three-set match against a Top 20 player all season prior to arriving at Sobeys Stadium, Swiatek has won two to reach the final in Canada for the first time -- having also done so against Marta Kostyuk in the fourth round. Her efforts so far, she says, has reaffirmed in an up-and-down season that she is still up for the fight in challenging moments.
"It hasn't been an easy season, probably the toughest one in my life on-court," Swiatek said. "This week has been really positive and inspirational for me. It always kind of shows that you need to keep going no matter what."
Well I guess my good feeling was correct.
What a match!.
Iga started great out of the gate and just did not let Svitolina breathe. For a while there it looked like she might even get a bagel.
She did what she's been doing so great all week long stayed patient and rallied with Svitolina (with some absolutely breathtaking display of athleticism). She stayed in the rallies and didn't bail out and try to end them early by overhitting from the baseline.
Svitolina being Svitolina raised her level and fought back in the 2nd and went up a break, in the 3rd.
Despite that Iga kept fighting, she didn't get frustrated to the point of losing her compose and and focus. She found a way back from the brink.
I'll be honest even I thought the match was over at that point. But Iga found that 6 time Grand Slam champion mentality, she recovered and won the match proving me wrong once again.
She won against Svitolina in slow night time conditions something that's not easy to do against a great counterpuncher like her.
Iga snatched this match from Svitolina with true grit, quality and resilience, something that has felt missing in her game for months now.
Feels apt that Iga found her level in a place where 18 year old Iga found belief that she could be a top ten player and belong in the sport.(2019 Toronto semi vs Wozniacki).
This match felt like such a huge mental turning point, I'd say even more so than against Kostyuk. There she had an awful first set and came back from a set down.
Here Iga won after getting a 1 set advantage, having a big dip in the 2nd and recovering a break in the 3rd.
For someone like Iga who's a great front runner, that's often proved so much harder to do especially of late.
The Iga of 2 months ago probably would have lost.
A massive change.
The kind of change that might give her back that locker room aura again, and make all her opponents start fearing her before they step out on court.
So a final with Rybakina awaits.
Pretty much as hard as it gets with one of the best servers on tour.
But Rybakina's route to the final has not been without struggles.
She's had a lot of 3 setters (with a lot of unforced errors), and an awful lot of time on court. That coupled with the 1am finish last night might be something Iga can use to her advantage.
Along with keeping Rybakina on the move and staying close with her on serve.
Really lovely vocal crowd support for Iga last night (minus the one guy who wouldn't shut up between serves because there's always one).
Must have felt so good for Iga after all the struggles she's been though and the criticism she's faced the past 11 months.
This win the affirmation that the work she's been doing with her new coach and team is working.
Talk about going a long way towards self belief too.
Brawo Iga.
Go for it tonight.
Jazda!.
14 - Iga Swiatek has reached a 14th WTA-1000 final from 47 main draws entered – since the format’s introduction in 2009, Swiatek (29.8%, 14/47) trails only Serena Williams (38.3%) and Maria Sharapova (32.0%) for rate of finals reached. Perspective.
3 - Iga Swiatek has claimed three WTA top 20 wins at a single event for the first time since claiming tournament victory at Roland Garros in 2024 (Marketa Vondrousova, Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini). Scalps.
31st career final, going for 12th WTA 1000 title
Has now made at least Finals at 9/10 WTA 1000 events (just missing Wuhan & only played it once).
No comments:
Post a Comment