Iga Swiatek battles past Qinwen Zheng at Roland Garros

Iga Swiatek survived a nearly three-hour clash with Qinwen Zheng at the 2022 Roland Garros to reach the quarter-finals of the tournament.

It was the first meeting between these two players who possess completely different weapons. While Swiatek is a great mover with precise ball striking, the Chinese player has a big serve and can hit the ball with a lot of power as well.

The first set was a proper battle between the players, even though neither looked particularly brilliant, as both struggled a bit on the Court Philippe-Chatrier. Both Zheng and Swiatek had their moments, but both missed quite a bit.

Swiatek jumped out to a 3-0 lead after saving two break points in the opening game, but she lost it, as Zheng served to make it 3-all. However, the Chinese player lost her serve again, as Swiatek made it 4-2, and allowed herself to serve for the set at 5-4.

Surprisingly, the Polish player wasn't able to convert a 40-15 lead on her serve, and Zheng was able to break back. The top seed then had two more set points in the 12th game of the opening set, but Zheng once again held strong to force a tie-break.

In the tie-break, Swiatek had a 5-2 lead, but she lost five consecutive points to lose the tie-break 5-7. It was the first set she lost at Roland Garros this year, and it was because she committed 21 errors and hit only 12 winners while also failing to convert four set points.

The second set was much, much better from the Polish player. She jumped out to an early lead and never looked back. Her opponent could not keep up, especially after she seemingly started struggling with a lower leg injury.

Swiatek won the second set 6-0, sending the match into the decider, but Zheng still struggled despite taking a medical time-out. Even with all those struggles, she was gifted a few break points at the start of the third set when Swiatek led 2-1 with a break.

Zheng failed to use them, and after that, Swiatek was able to cruise to a three-set win, 6-7(5), 6-0, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals of the 2022 Roland Garros.

Read also

"He plays every match on Philippe Chatrier" - Zverev complains about scheduling and Alcaraz