Iga Swiatek cruised through her opening match at the 2023 US Open, beating Sweden's Rebecca Peterson.
The math was simple ahead of the 2023 US Open. Last year's champion, Swiatek is defending 2000 points, and since Aryna Sabalenka, who is her main competitor for the world no. 1 spot, reached the semifinals in 2022, the Belarusian needs only to reach the same round as the 22-year-old Pole to surpass her in the rankings.
Anytime the current world no. 1, who spent already 74 weeks atop of the rankings, goes one round further than the world no. 2, she will keep the spot. Therefore, the very first match of her 2023 campaign at Flushing Meadows was already important, and she faced a tricky opponent in Rebecca Peterson.
The two met two times on the WTA Tour before, with both matches being at majors. The Polish player won both encounters in straight sets, and she wanted to do the same thing also at the 2023 US Open.
The start was great from the Polish player, who lost only four games on her serve in the first set, and on top of that, Swiatek managed to use three out of four break points that she had. That resulted in a swift 6-0 win in only 25 minutes.
Peterson had a chance to break already in the first game of the second set, leading 40-0 on her opponent's serve, but she couldn't use those three chances. On the other hand, Swiatek saved the break points and a couple of games later, she broke her opponent's serve again.
Two more games later, the top seed added one more break, and after only 59 minutes of play, Swiatek won the match 6-0, 6-1, sending the virtual tennis ball in a match for the world no. 1 spot to Sabalenka's side of the court.
In the second round of the tournament, the 22-year-old will play against Daria Saville (Gavrilova), who Swiatek defeated last year in Adelaide.
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