WTA Ostrava: Iga Swiatek benefits from the task, Paula Badosa fails
The number oneIga Swiatek was able to successfully complete her round of 16 tasks at the strong WTA Tour 500 tournament in Ostrava. Paula Badosa, the number two of the event, was eliminated.
by Stefan Bergmann
last edit: Oct 05, 2022, 08:29 pm
The indoor hard court event in Ostrava in East Moravia is truly excellent for a WTA Tour 500 tournament. And the tournament organizers can be happy that at least one of the two top seeded players has reached the quarterfinals.
While at Swiatek those responsible would have been unreservedly happy anyway, the defeat in Badosa is almost bittersweet for the Ostrava officials, but one after the other: Swiatek, who have been more critical of the two associations ITF and WTA in recent days than with her tennis skills, benefited after a bye in round one from the surrender of her opponent in the round of 16, Ajla Tomljanovic, at a score of 7: 5, 2: 2. In the round of eight, either the American Catherine McNally or the local hero Karolina Muchova are waiting to exchange blows - the two will play their quarter-final ticket tomorrow.
Kvitova lets the home hall romp
On the day of the tournament, Muchova had clearly defeated the Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia, who was ranked seventh, in two sets 6: 4, 6: 4, incidentally shortly after the French Open winner of the previous year Barbora Krejcikova played her opening game against the American Shelby Rogers positively 6: 2, 6: 2 brought to a conclusion.
Coming back to Badosa, in the evening another local hero and two-time Wimbledon champion appeared as the Iberian's challenger: Petra Kvitova. And the Czech, whose birthplace Bilovec is less than 30 kilometers from Ostrava, was able - also with the help of the audience - to win the match against the fourth in the world rankings with 7: 6 (4) and 6: 4. The next challenge for the 32-year-old may now be either Kazakh Elena Rybakina or Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich.