Iga Swiatek ‘has nothing to lose’ as she steamrolls into WTA Finals semi-finals

Iga Swiatek has secured a spot in semi-finals of the WTA Finals for the first time by defeating Caroline Garcia. 

The world number one came into the round robin match with Garcia as the only WTA Finals competitor she had not beaten in 2022, losing to the Frenchwoman in Warsaw July. But she levelled their head-to-head for the season at 1-1 by defeating the world number six 6-3, 6-2 to qualify for the last four with a match to spare.

“I feel like at the beginning, I didn’t have much confidence,” Swiatek admitted in her press conference. “She broke me basically because I couldn’t put my first serve in. But then I changed my technique a little bit.

“I knew what I had to do to be more solid and I’m pretty happy that it worked because in the next games maybe I wasn’t serving perfectly. But we played a rally after that and I felt like in those rallies, I could really dominate. So for me, it was really important to put these first two balls in.”

Iga Swiatek is the second woman to book her place in the semi-finals after Greece’s Maria Sakkari also won her first two round robin matches against Jessica Pegula and Aryna Sabalenka.

The 21-year-old Pole is playing her final tournament of the year in Fort Worth as she decided against playing the Billie Jean King Cup Finals immediately after, something for which she drew criticism from Billie Jean King herself.

“It’s the last tournament of the season, so I have kind of nothing to lose,” Swiatek said.

“I don’t have to worry what I’m going to do next. For sure, I’m giving it 100%, physically and mentally.”

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