Iga Swiatek in heated exchange with umpire after win over Marketa Vondrousova

Kevin Palmer 18 Aug 2023 7:10 PM

Iga Swiatek of Poland reacts during a match

World No 1 Iga Swiatek claimed a convincing win over Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova to reach the semi-finals in Cincinnati, with the biggest talking point coming after the final ball was struck.

Roland Garros champion Swiatek trailed the 10th-seeded 5-3 in a compelling first set, but she came back to snatch the tie-break 7-3 and then ran away with the second set 6-1.

A seemingly frosty exchange at the net between the two players was followed by Swiatek’s rant in the direction of umpire Marija Cicak.

The official gave Swiatek a time violation on match point, as she was not ready to receive Vondrousova’s serve as she had her back turned to the court.

The receiver needs to play at the server’s speed and unless the crowd is making too much noise, the receiving player needs to be ready to play when the serve is delivered.

This decision was not well received by Swiatek, who took her complaints to the umpire.

“It is not your time,” said Cicak. “You were stood there for another 5-7 to seven seconds for no reason and you can at least turn around.”

Swiatek suggested Vondrousova was trying to rush her, but Cicak reminded the Pole that she needs to be ready to return serve as the umpire added: “That is not your time, it’s her time.”

Vondrousova was clearly irritated with Swiatek’s attempts to slow her down in her service motion and appeared to wait a long time to come to the net, making Swiatk wait for her after her defeat.

“I’m really happy with my performance,” said Swiatek. “It wasn’t easy to adjust to her spin because she is a leftie, but I really wanted to fight for every ball and in the end, this has worked.

“I was much more focused after the first set and in the second set, I knew exactly what to do.”

The time Swiatek takes in between points is an issue that has been raised by some of her opponents in previous matches, with Amazon Prime analyst Daniela Hantuchova suggesting the two players got under each other’s skin over the course of the match.

“It felt like Vondrousova was going even quicker on her serve as she knew it would irritate Iga,” she said.

“Iga was able to put more intensity and discipline into her shots in the second set and she became more and more aggressive.

“There was a lot of frustration from Vondrousova over how long Iga was taking between points and she let that get to her.”

Meanwhile, French Open finalist Karolina Muchova advanced final four in Cincinnati after Marie Bouzkova retired due to a right thigh injury in Friday’s quarterfinals.

Muchova led 3-0 in the first set before Bouzkova pulled out of the match.