Iga Swiatek faced a really inspired opponent in the third round at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but still handled it really well with a straight sets win, getting ever close to the gold medal.
Much has been talked about Swiatek's dominance on clay. She has been spectacular on the surface for a while now, and no courts highlight it better than the Roland Garros courts in Paris, where she lifted the trophy for the fourth time this year.
The last time it happened was earlier this year, and it's why she entered the Olympics as a favorite, given the Olympic Games are played on the very same courts this year. She has been able to do that so far with an impressive first two matches at the Olympics.
Her hitting has been really scrip, but in her third-round match, she faced a player who brought the heat as well. Xiyu Wang is a very talented Chinese player who hits the ball hard by choice.
She is an interesting watch because either she amazes on a good day, or she could disappoint with a sub-par performance. That's what happened earlier this year when Swiatek bested her 6-1, 6-4 in Madrid, but not quite in this match.
Wang was impressive at the start of the match, hitting the ball well, which coincided with Swaitek struggling to find her rhythm. Sometimes, the Chinese player simply outhit the World No. 1, which is incredibly hard to imagine, but it happened.
Still, with time, Swiatek was able to get a sense of what the Chinese player was trying to do and slowly overpowered her to win the opening set 6-3. It took a lot of effort because this was a really good showing from Wang.
Swiatek had 9 winners in the opening set, and Wang had 8. The Chinese player also had only 8 unforced errors compared to Swiatek's 11, which shows that she was really hanging in there in most rallies.
The start of the second set opened with a furious game by the top seed, who took an early break, but holding it proved to be very tough. Wang broke back after some really spectacular shots despite Swiatek trying her best not to get broken.
It was unusual to see Swiatek getting outhit on the Court Philippe-Chatrier, where she lifted four major trophies, but all credit goes to Wang, who was playing incredibly well.
It was her best match in a very long time, and it was close to what her tennis could look like when she finds a rhythm from the baseline. The good hitting was going to stop sooner or later because if Wang was able to play like this consistently, she would be in the Top 10, but because she doesn't, she is not.
Swiatek broke for a 3-2 lead and held it for a 4-2 score. The Chinese player still wasn't shaken much because she won her game comfortably to put pressure on Swiatek again.
It worked, as the Polish player lost her serve but then broke again and, this time, held her serve and won the match 6-3, 6-4 to progress into the Olympic Games quarter-finals.
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