World No.1 Iga Swiatek defeated China’s Zheng Qinwen in the Round of 16 at the ongoing Stuttgart Open on Thursday to advance into the quarter-finals.
Swiatek was returning to the court after a break of more than one month due to her rib injury. She had also missed the Miami Open and Poland’s Billie Jean King Cup Qualifier. She outplayed Zheng by winning in round 2 with 6-1, 6-4 to defend her title in the opening game. She finished the match in one hour and 26 minutes.
With this win, Swiatek moved to the quarterfinal match where she will face former champion and former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova to advance to the final eight. Karolina defeated Donna Vekic in 2 hours and 20 minutes in the third set tiebreak. “I felt like I needed to be 100% focused from the beginning to the end, to think about technique and tactics. I’m pretty happy that I’m not rusty and I could perform good tennis, even though I had a break,” WTA.com quoted Swiatek as saying. “I’m pretty happy that I’m not rusty and I could perform good tennis, even though I had a break.”
After a break of 45 days, Swiatek showed why she is the current No1, she led the game to 3-0. She displayed no mercy to Zheng, and conquered the red-clay court in straight sets win. Swiatek stayed undefeated against Zheng as both played three matches and all were won by the Polish shutter. Zheng by taking consecutive two games delayed the victory of Swiatek, who was leading to 6-1, 4-2. However, she broke the fourth time and achieved 15 points.
“She’s really talented, and everybody can see that,” Swiatek said.
“I needed to adjust, and I’m just happy that I was focused on myself, on what I wanted to do … and I feel pretty comfortable. So I’m happy that I could show my good tennis.” Swiatek added. Swiatek and Pliskova have played only a single game which Swiatek dominatingly won to 6-0, 6-0 in the final of the Italian Open in 2021.
