Iga Swiatek too strong for Emma Raducanu at Indian Wells – ‘Ruthless Iga showed why she is No 1’

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Iga Swiatek in action

Emma Raducanu admitted that Iga Swiatek was on another level during their fourth-round clash at the Indian Wells Open, saying the world No 1 “was very ruthless”.

Swiatek was always the favourite heading into the match as she is the defending champion in California and she also came into the WTA 1000 tournament on the back of winning the Qatar Open and finishing runner-up at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

The Pole also won her first two matches without dropping a set, but Raducanu herself was in decent form as she reeled off three impressive wins in Indian Wells – victories wins over 20th seed Magda Linette and 13th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia.

Both players gave as good as they got early on, but Swiatek’s firepower eventually told and she secured a 6-3, 6-1 victory in one hour and 24 minutes to go 2-0 up in her head-to-head against the 2021 US Open champion.

“I think that Iga played a very good level and showed why she is No 1 in the world,” Raducanu told BBC Sport.

“She was very ruthless with the way that she played. I think I was able to stay competitive for the beginning of the match but ultimately she ground me down and by the end of it I was just taking way too long to recover from one rally.”

Raducanu saved two break points in game two of the opening set and then Swiatek herself had to save a couple of break points in the next game. The solitary break in the set came in game six as the top seed broke to love and there was no way back for Raducanu after that.

Swiatek broke in games three, five and seven of the second set to book her place in the quarter-final where she will face Sorana Cirstea after the Romanian upset fifth seed Caroline Garcia 6-4, 4-6, 7-5.

“I always want to finish [points] as fast as possible if I have a chance, but for sure I know that sometimes it’s not going to be possible here,” Swiatek said. “I’m pretty sure that some of these shots would be winners in different conditions, but here the ball is bouncing and it’s slower.

“I’m always pretty good in defense. I knew that I can’t rush it and I can’t be not patient, so I just stayed solid and I wanted to choose the right directions. It was more about that, not the speed and forcing everything to play a winner.”

The winner of the Swiatek-Cirstea contest will face either Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina or Karolina Muchova in the semi-final.

Seventh seed Maria Sakkari and Petra Kvitova will square off in quarter-final three while second seed Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff will meet in quarter-final four.

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