Iga Swiatek appeared to be a bit stunned when asked if she could take over a dominant player in the future as the Pole bluntly suggested that she has been doing exactly that for the past two years.
On Thursday, world No. 1 Swiatek ousted Elise Mertens 6-3 6-4 to reach the Stuttgart quarterfinal and put herself three wins away from winning another Stuttgart title. Since making her Stuttgart debut in 2022, the 22-year-old Pole is 9-0 at the tournament and is now bidding to win her third consecutive title.
But Stuttgart isn’t the only tournament where Swiatek has had success over the last two years as the 22-year-old Pole has won a total of 16 titles since the start of 2022 – the most on the WTA Tour. Of those 16 titles, three were Grand Slam victories and Swiatek also held a highly impressive 37-match winning streak in 2022.
After beating Mertens, Swiatek was told that there now seemed to be more consistency in women’s tennis and asked if she could “take over” as a dominant figure in the future.
“Well, the question is if I already did that for past two years, because I feel like I have been pretty dominant, and also Aryna has been, so we both kind of have shown that there is consistency on WTA. I remember when I was playing in 2020, 2021, I also got many questions about consistency, and I felt like some players, you know, have proven that it’s possible. So I already feel like I have been pretty dominant,” Swiatek answered.
“But we’ll see what next years are going to bring. There have been players that have been dominating throughout their whole careers, you know, and I’m still at the beginning. So there is still so much work to do.”
Iga Swiatek © Getty Images Sport – Clive Brunskill
Swiatek on facing Emma Raducanu next
Today’s quarterfinal action in Stuttgart will see two Grand Slam champions taking on each other when four-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek faces 2021 US Open champion Raducanu.
After winning two thriller matches last week to lead Great Britain to win over France in the BJK Cup qualifiers, Raducanu continued her fine form in Stuttgart, demolishing Angelique Kerber 6-2 6-1 and ousting Linda Noskova 6-0 7-5. Currently, Raducanu is on a four-match winning streak and that’s her longest since winning the US Open.
Heading into the match against Raducanu, Swiatek spoke highly of the Briton’s potential and said she would not take the 2021 US Open champion for granted.
“Well, she seems like she’s getting her game back together, so it’s great to see that, because for sure she has potential. Yeah, well, it’s not going to be easy. She knows how to spin the ball and how to move on clay, as well. I wouldn’t expect an easy match,” Swiatek said of facing Raducanu.
Iga Swiatek and Emma Raducanu © Getty Images Sport – Julian Finney
Raducanu on how she plans to approach the Swiatek match
Later today when Raducanu and Swiatek meet, they will be going head-to-head for the third time in their careers – their first meeting came in the 2022 Stuttgart quarterfinal, while their second meeting came last month in Indian Wells. In both cases, Swiatek ended on the winning side – she won their Stuttgart meeting 6-4 6-4 and their Indian Wells match 6-3 6-1, respectively.
Ahead of their third meeting, Raducanu insists she is entering without feeling any pressure as she insists she can just go out there and play freely since she has nothing to lose.
“Yeah, I mean, I remember. We actually had a pretty tough match. I think it was like 4 and 4, something like that. But I remember I served really well in that match and it kept me in,” Raducanu said.
“It’s obviously tough playing Iga, because she plays pretty heavy, she plays fast. She has a lot of options at her disposal. It’s obviously going to be a really difficult match tomorrow but one where I have zero to lose and I think one that the crowd really want to see.”
Emma Raducanu and Iga Swiatek © Getty Images Sport – Julian Finney
When Raducanu and Swiatek were about to meet for the first time on the clay courts of Stuttgart, many weren’t really giving the Briton much of a chance since she was playing her first-ever clay WTA tournament while the Pole was already a Grand Slam champion on clay.
When the match started, Raducanu lost her serve in the opening game of the match and Swiatek went on to win the opener with a 6-4 scoreline. In the second set, Raducanu got broken in the opening game – she got the break back instantly in the second game – but dropped her serve again in the third game as Swiatek went on to complete a 6-4 6-4 win.
Raducanu didn’t embarrass herself when she met Swiatek for the first time in Stuttgart and it will be interesting to see how much she can challenge the world No. 1 today.
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