Iga Swiatek will be playing in the fourth round of the 2023 Madrid Open after another impressive win.
After easily overcoming Julia Grabher in the second round of the WTA 1000 tournament in the Spanish capital, the young Pole took on the 28th-seeded Bernarda Pera in the third round of the tournament. The two met only once before, with their match being staged in the final of qualifying in Birmingham four years ago, and Swiatek staged an impressive comeback then after saving three match points.
This time around, the world no. 1 didn't need to save any match points and she also didn't need a comeback. That was because of a simple reason and that was her control of the match from start to finish.
Although the 21-year-old struggled with effectivity early on, as she couldn't use any of her three break points while Pera succeeded with her first one, Swiatek quickly broke back and after holding her serve she led 3-2 in the first set.
But levelling the score surely wasn't the objective for the highest-seeded player at the 2023 Madrid Open and she showed in the next few games. She broke the American again and when leading 5-2, Swiatek could finish the first set with a break point on her opponent's serve.
But although that wasn't the case, the Pole comfortably held to love in the next game and won the first set 6-3. In a good mood after winning the first set, Swiatek made sure she will dominate in the second part of the match.
She broke in the first game of the second set and even though break point efficiency wasn't something that she could be proud of in this match, she consistently troubled Pera on return and that resulted in two breaks in the second set and a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win.
Now, Swiatek will focus on her fourth-round match as she will meet either the 16th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova from Russia or the 22nd-seeded Qinwen Zheng from China.
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