By now, we all know what we’re going to get when Iga Swiatek and Karolina Muchova face off.
They’re going to separate the primary two units. Muchova goes to attempt to disrupt Swiatek’s topspin forehand along with her slice backhand. Swiatek goes to attempt to blow the highest off of Muchova’s second serve. And any individual goes to win 6-Four within the third set. The primary time they performed, in 2019, it was Muchova. The second time they performed, within the Roland Garros ultimate earlier this 12 months, it was Swiatek. The third time, on Thursday night time in Montreal, it was Swiatek once more, 6-1, 4-6, 6-4.
“We’ve performed this match, like, thrice,” Swiatek stated with a smile afterward.
There have been some peculiarities about this one, although. The obvious is that it took roughly 9 hours from begin to end. The Pole and the Czech arrived on court docket at 12:30 p.m., and shook hand round 9:30. In between, there have been two rain delays that ate up greater than six hours. Swiatek being Swiatek, although, she took it as an opportunity to have a model new expertise. She’d by no means needed to wait that lengthy to play earlier than.
“It was a rare day,” she stated. “I needed to make use of the chance to study one thing new.”
The way in which Swiatek gained this match was additionally totally different from her norm. Sometimes, her diving, penetrating one-two floor stroke punch leads the way in which. However she didn’t have that tonight. She hit 37 winners, however made 53 errors. Many got here from the forehand facet. Muchova pressured Swiatek to get down low along with her slice backhand, and he or she rushed her along with her crosscourt forehand. For a lot of the second set, which she misplaced, Swiatek would play one recreation brilliantly, and the subsequent horribly.
However this time she had backup. I don’t usually consider her serve and return as her core weapons. However they had been towards Muchova. Swiatek made 70 p.c of her first serves, and hit seven aces; 5 of them got here got here within the deciding set, and three on break factors. Her slider-out extensive within the deuce court docket and down the T within the advert court-has not often been simpler. Even higher was her return. In a Djokovic-esque efficiency, she jumped on a lot of Muchova’s greatest first serves and rifled them both again at her toes or up the road for in-your-face winners. A kind of winners got here at break level within the opening recreation of the third set. From there, Swiatek held 5 straight instances for the win.
“It wasn’t straightforward,” Swiatek stated, echoing her fellow No. 1, Carlos Alcaraz, from the night time earlier than. “You need to discover vitality.”
Swiatek strikes on to play Danielle Collins, a 6-2, 6-Three winner over Canadian Leylah Fernandez. She is aware of now that she will be able to win with out her greatest from the bottom. And, simply in case, God forbid, she ever must do it once more, she is aware of she will be able to win a nine-hour match. –Tennis.com