Iga Swiatek is competing at the 2023 Poland Open in Warsaw and despite two wins, things are not going smoothly at the WTA 250 event.
Playing in front of the home crowd is special for every athlete, but more so when there's only one tournament in Poland that the current world no. 1 in the WTA Rankings can attend. Swiatek is competing in Warsaw, and she's trying to improve her last year's result, which was a quarterfinal loss to Caroline Garcia.
After overcoming a slow start in her first match, and once again showing her dominance in the second match, the young Pole set up a quarterfinal match against the 18-year-old Czech prodigy Linda Noskova in the quarterfinals, who is the only other seeded player left in the tournament's draw.
As a home player, Swiatek's match is logically scheduled last in Friday's schedule, with the initial expected start at 5:30 PM local time. However, the play was supposed to start already at 11 AM, and two hours later, it's far from any action happening in Warsaw.
The reason is rainy weather, which should be persistent throughout the day, not allowing players to complete much of the play. While rain is predicted throughout the whole day in Warsaw, the tournament organizers are still doing their best to make it possible for players to compete on Friday.
Multiple updates during the day postponed the expected start, with the last saying that matches should begin at 1 PM local time. However, it's expected that even if that happens, rain may appear again, further postponing the play.
And with the home player scheduled for the last match, that could mean that she may need to play her quarterfinal and semifinal matches both on Saturday. In the quarterfinals, she plays against Noskova, while a possible semifinal match could see her take on either Heather Watson or Yanina Wickmayer. While the Polish fans would certainly be disappointed not to see Swiatek on Friday, they would certainly root for her on Saturday to see her twice in one day.