Iga Swiatek keeps cruising at the 2023 Italian Open in Rome after she defeated Donna Vekic in the fourth round.
The World No. 1 is a favourite at almost every event that she enters, but especially those played on the red dirt. The WTA 1000 tournament in Rome is one of those, so it's not a surprise that Swiatek is a two-time defending champion, having won the event in 2021 and 2022.
She started with a double bagel in the second round, beating Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-0, 6-0, before thrashing also Lesia Tsurenko, 6-2, 6-0. In the fourth round, the Pole met Donna Vekic from Croatia, a player she beat three times before. However, all of their previous matches were on the hard courts, with the 2023 Italian Open meeting being first on clay.
Vekic had two difficult three-set matches behind her, beating Aliaksandra Sasnovich and Liudmila Samsonova. And maybe it was fatigue that resulted in a bit of a slow start from the Croatian, as Swiatek broke in the fourth game of the first set.
But Vekic didn't want to wait around and immediately attempted to break back, having two break points in the fifth game. And even though that attempt was not successful, the 21st seed succeeded two games later, breaking back to decrease the deficit to 3-4.
Yet, sometimes, it's harder to confirm the break with hold of serve than the break itself and that's something that Vekic experienced. Swiatek played two solid games and that was everything she needed to win the first set 6-3.
Fans at Foro Italico had to wait a long time before seeing any break points in the second set. At 4-4, it seemed that the set will reach a tie-break, especially when Vekic led already 30-0 on her serve.
But Swiatek won four consecutive points to break her opponent and serve for the match. Although the Pole faced two break points in the final game, she overcame the challenge to beat Vekic 6-3, 6-4 and set up a quarterfinal clash with the seventh-seeded Elena Rybakina from Kazakhstan.
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