Iga Swiatek keeps clay winning streak going in Warsaw
Iga Swiatek may have seen her WTA Tour winning streak come to an end at Wimbledon but she remains unbeaten on clay this season.
Swiatek returned to action for the first time since her Wimbledon exit in her home event in Warsaw.
She ousted compatriot Magdalena Frech 6-1, 6-2 to progress to the round of 16 on Wednesday.
Swiatek said that she needed all of her powers of focus not to be distracted by the wild support from the home fans.
“For sure playing in your hometown with all that crowd is pretty extraordinary,” Swiatek said. “I didn’t get a chance to play many tournaments in Poland so for sure I needed extra focus and determination to come here and stay in the zone and not let my head think about other stuff.”
Swiatek is Poland’s top player by some distance but she gave props to Frech and insists that the result may have been different had they met on a different surface.
“I’m happy that I was solid today because Magda is not an easy opponent. From the beginning I wanted to put pressure on her and I did that pretty well. I’m pretty sure with our styles the result may be different on different surfaces, for example, grass. But here I didn’t have a problem coming back with my topspins.”
Swiatek extends her winning streak on clay to 17 matches in succession and now sports a 47-4 record to go with her massive lead over the chasing pack on the WTA Rankings.
Along with her second career Grand Slam at Roland Garros, Swiatek has also won clay court titles in Stuttgart and Rome.
She has become just the fifth player in this century to win 17 or more consecutive matches on clay, following in the footsteps of Serena and Venus Williams, Justine Henin, and Maria Sharapova.
Swiatek last tasted defeat on clay at last year’s Roland Garros when Maria Sakkari stopped her run in the quarter-finals.
The World No 1 will take on Romania’s Gabriela Lee with a place in the Warsaw quarter-finals on the line on Thursday afternoon.
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