Iga Swiatek played her first competitive match in two months yesterday, fighting back to make a winning start to her WTA Finals title defence.Swiatek beat Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova, 4-6 7-5 6-2, in her first round-robin match in Riyadh.This was the World No.2’s first match since losing in the US Open quarter-finals, and she found herself 6-4 3-0 (double break) down to Krejcikova before winning 13 of the next 17 games.
The match lasted two hours and 35 minutes, with Swiatek explaining that she needed time to adapt after being away from the matchcourt, “Even though I played a lot of those [practice] matches, I kind of forgot for a while how it is to feel all those things, a bit different stress and emotions.
“For sure, I needed some time to adapt. The most important thing was that even though it happened, I managed to fight through that. And was patient enough to wait to get better.”
The Pole added, “Honestly, I just focused on getting the balls in. I needed to focus on the easy stuff. My main goal was just to be solid. I’m happy that I won because at the beginning I felt a little bit rusty.”
Not only was it Swiatek’s first match since the US Open, but also her first with new coach Wim Fissette.
Prior to the tournament, Swiatek revealed that they had been working on her serve and this appeared to pay off, with the Roland Garros champion hitting 10 aces against Krejcikova, the second most in her career.
8 – Iga Swiatek has made 8 aces today so far: she only had more twice in a single main draw match in her career – 12 vs Ana Bogdan at the Australian Open 2019 and nine vs Vera Lapko in Lugano 2019. Weapon. #WTAFinalsRiyadh | @WTA@WTAFinalsRiyadh@WTA_insider
Swiatek will now look to move towards qualification to the WTA Finals semi-finals, when she plays Coco Gauff in her second round-robin match tomorrow.Inside the baseline…It was great to see Iga Swiatek back on court and she did really well to adapt, especially as Barbora Krejcikova had won their last two matches. The serve was a big part of this, and if Swiatek can play more like the last set then she will be a big threat to win the title in Riyadh. And Swiatek will be a huge favourite to beat Coco Gauff tomorrow, given that she has an 11-1 lead in the head-to-head with the American.READ MORE – Tennis on TV Next Week: How to watch the WTA Finals, ATP Metz and more!
