Iga Swiatek kept her winning streak going at the 2024 Dubai Championships by besting Elina Svitolina in a third-round match.
This matchup has been quite interesting over the years. We didn't see it often, but last year's meeting at Wimbledon was quite interesting. Svitolina was able to win that one, which meant that the Pole had an added motivation for their meeting at the WTA 1000 tournament in Dubai.
She certainly played that way, and it was aided by the Ukranian, who was likely dealing with some physical issues, which she spoke about ahead of the match. Svitolina got overwhelmed pretty quickly by Swiatek, who did play in the final in Dubai last year.
The opening set lasted only 29 minutes as Swiatek cruised 6-1, and it was a very one-sided set of tennis. The overwhelming force Swiatek brought in the rallies was just too much for the Ukrainian player, who didn't even have a single break point in the set.
She couldn't create any pressure from the baseline but did much better in the second set. Swiatek did take an early break in the second set, but Svitolina pushed as well.
Not long after that, she actually broke back to make it 2-2, which was quite a notable feat. It wouldn't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things because the world no. 1 would still break for the 3-2 lead, which became a 4-2 lead after she held her serve.
Svitolina didn't give up and broke back once more to make it 4-4, but the Polish player fought back and won the set 6-4. The final score was 6-1 6-4, which is a pretty good result for her because she kept it in two sets, avoiding more fatigue.
After the week in Doha, she needs short and simple matches like this. In the quarterfinal of the tournament, Swiatek will take on the winner of the match between Qinwen Zheng and Anastasia Potapova.
0 Comments