After winning the 2022 US Open, Iga Swiatek returned to action at the 2022 Ostrava Open, where she's obviously the top-seeded.
World number 1 met Ajla Tomljanovic in the first round of the tournament. Previously, she played against the Australia twice in Toronto as her opponent was forced to retire in one of the matches. Now, the story of the match was very similar as Iga Swiatek advanced after the retirement of her opponent.
Prior to the tournament, the Pole stated that she's ready to compete, even though, her last match was three weeks ago. "This tournament could be tough because I haven't played any matches in three weeks. And coming back after winning a Grand Slam is always tricky. But tennis-wise I feel that I'm ready."
And she showed it from the very first point when she got an early break and after only a few minutes of play, Swiatek was already 4-1 up. However, Tomljanovic showed her fighting spirit to tie the score at 4-4 and she even had two break points to go into the lead.
Yet, world number 1 showed that she came to the Czech Republic to win and stayed calm under pressure. Moreover, she broke her opponent in the last game before a possible tie-break to win the first set 7-5.
The game was on and both players knew it as they traded breaks in the first two games of the second set. All four games played in the second set reached a deuce and they were played for a total of 38 minutes before Tomljanovic was forced to retire due to an injury.
In the quarterfinals of the 2022 Ostrava Open, Swiatek will meet winner of the match between Caty McNally and Karolina Muchova.
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