French Open 2022: Iga Swiatek continues unchallenged despite losing a set
Iga Swiatek advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2022 French Open despite losing her first set of the tournament. The Pole defeated Qinwen Zheng from China 6:7 (5), 6:0 and 6:2.
by tennisnet.com
last edit:
May 30, 2022, 08:23 pm
Iga Swiatek has rarely been seen like this in recent weeks: flawed. And that in the face of an opponent who competed against the world number one without great expectations, but with a lot of aggressiveness. Qinwen Zheng, 19 years old and currently ranked 74th in the WTA charts, fought against Swiatek in the early stages in a way that the Pole had recently experienced from Ludmilla Samsonova in the semi-finals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. Zheng caught up a 3-5 in the first set, trailing 2-5 in the tiebreak - and winning the five points that followed.
In the second set, Swiatek turned up the heat, Zheng took a medical break to have her left thigh bandaged. Which explains why the 6-0 for the favorite took 34 minutes of play. Zheng continued to fight, but had to accept a break right at the start of the deciding set. That didn't make it much easier for Iga Swiatek. She missed several chances for another break, which only came to 5:2. Only after 2:45 hours of play was the teenager's resistance finally broken.
Swiatek's next opponent will be American Jessica Pegula, who was able to hold her own against Irina Camelia Begu in three sets. The second quarterfinals of the top half will be an all-Russian affair: Veronika Kudermetova, who won against Madison Keys on Monday, meets Daria Kasatkina, who didn't give Camila Giorgi a chance.
Here is the women's individual tableau
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