Played at roughly 650 metres above sea level, Madrid is the only significant clay-court title to have eluded Swiatek’s grasp, an omission that is often put down to the speed with which the ball travels through the air in the Spanish capital. The received wisdom is that such an environment favours more attacking players, yet the Pole is no slouch in that regard, and so far it is the pace of her own destructive ball-striking that has done the damage.

Swiatek, who was beaten by Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s final, has dropped just eight games en route to the quarter-finals, and while she struggled to find her range initially against Sorribes Tormo, her relentless aggression and consistency ensured there was never any danger of her bring drawn into the kind of clay-court dogfight on which the 55th-ranked Spaniard thrives. 

A break in the opening game augured well for Sorribes Tormo, but her relatively passive play from the back of the court emphasised why she has failed to win a set in any of her four meetings with Swiatek. 

As Sorribes Tormo lofted up high, spinning moonballs that Swiatek battered into the corners at a lower, pacier trajectory, the baseline exchanges frequently resembled clay pigeon shooting more than clay-court tennis. Retreating deep behind the baseline, the Spaniard ceded too much ground to the world’s best player, enabling Swiatek to step in and patiently open up the angles. A final tally of 27 winners to just three from Sorribes Tormo, who won barely a quarter of her service points, summed up the Pole’s supremacy.

“I adjusted well to what Sara was playing, because she’s a tricky opponent and you can get in trouble quickly, so I’m happy with how efficient and solid I was,” said Swiatek. 

 “She plays with a lot of spin and it’s hard to close the rallies. So I wanted to be patient, but on the other hand intense, and also not let her use my power, because basically that’s what she does.”

At times, the greatest threat to Swiatek’s progress appeared to be Swiatek herself. Such was the case when she overran a lob in the fifth game, scuttling back to the baseline so rapidly that she lost her bearings and could only watch helplessly as the ball landed a foot or so in front of her. For the most part, however, the Pole was imperious, crunching untouchable forehands, winning backhand-to-backhand duels, showing her range with a feathery drop shot and making decisive ventures to the net. 

Beatriz Haddad Maia, who saw off fifth-seeded Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-4 to extend her unbeaten record against the Greek to four matches, should offer a sterner test in the quarter-finals. With her heavy southpaw serve and big forehand, the Brazilian undoubtedly possesses the firepower required to trouble Swiatek, as she demonstrated by defeating the Pole at the 2022 Canadian Open and running her close in the second set of the French Open semi-finals last year. On this form, however, the top seed will take some stopping.

“Bia is a great player with a big serve and a lot of variety and touch on court, so there are plenty of things to look out for, but it doesn’t make sense for me to focus on that,” said Swiatek.

“For sure I’m going to prepare tactically; my coach is going to watch her recent matches, and we’ll also learn from some matches that we played before.

“I’ll focus on myself and I’ll be ready.”

Of that, there can be no doubt. Swiatek, who lost just five points in the second set against Sorribes Tormo, appears ready for anything. Flying at altitude, it will surely take something special to bring her back down to Earth.

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Judging from the way she dismantled Maria Sakkari to win her second Indian Wells title in three years, however, Swiatek needs no advice in that department. In the kind of lopsided contest that has become her stock-in-trade, the world No 1 defeated the Greek ninth seed 6-4, 6-0 to claim her second WTA 1000 crown of the season, following last month’s win in Doha, and eighth in all. Swiatek, who did not drop a set throughout the tournament, has now won all but four of the 23 finals she has contested as a professional, amassing four grand slam titles along the way.

With her latest victory, Swiatek also overtook Graf to claim the best winning percentage in the tournament’s history (90% to 89.5%). She may have a long way to go before matching the German legend in other areas, but the 22-year-old’s grasp of what it means to hold the top ranking, and her ability to capitalise on the attendant advantages, are evident.

“You just feel like your game is better than anyone out there,” said Swiatek of what it means to be No 1. “Obviously it’s not for granted that you’re going to win because of that, but you feel like you have skills and you have everything to be able to present your best game.  

“I don’t expect it’s going to happen all the time, but I just know that it’s somewhere there and I need to make the best work to put it out there.”

In a repeat of the 2022 final, which she won by an almost identical scoreline, Swiatek certainly produced some of her best work. Striking the ball with the same length, penetration and consistency that put paid to Marta Kostyuk in the semi-finals, she rolled through the first three games and won eight in a row from 4-4 in the first set to put the match beyond Sakkari. 

Swiatek’s one period of anxiety came when Sakkari, heeding the advice of her new coach, David Witt, to target the Pole’s backhand and be more unpredictable, compiled a run of three straight games to level the opener. Taken the distance in four of her previous five matches in the California desert, the Greek has not wanted for tenacity, but this time her appetite for the fray was not enough. Not once Swiatek had recovered to win the first set, a position from which she is now unbeaten in 70 consecutive matches at this level. 

It has nonetheless been an encouraging start for Sakkari in her first event since joining forces with Witt, the experienced American who parted ways with Jessica Pegula last month. Having arrived in California on a run of four defeats in six matches this season, the 28-year-old’s run to a second Indian Wells final in three years marks a welcome return to form. Her one regret was being drawn into a draining three-set battle in the semi-finals, where she held match points for a straight-sets win over Coco Gauff only to be taken the distance.

“I wasn’t competitive enough today,” said Sakkari. “My energy level was low, and in order for me to beat her I have to be at my best. 

“She’s aggressive, but at the same time she’s solid. You have to take advantage of those chances she gives you. Like, from 3-0 to 3-3 to 4-4, she started missing. 

“In order to beat her right now, I mean, if you look at her record, the players that she loses to are very aggressive players. If you try and play her game, you have no chance. You have to be ultra-aggressive playing her.

“But then if you don’t take that small chance – like it was 4-4, and I played a very loose returning game, I missed three backhand returns. That’s not acceptable with players like her.”

The win gives Swiatek a 2,520-point lead over Aryna Sabalenka at the top of the rankings, following the Belarusian’s fourth-round defeat to Emma Navarro. She will have the opportunity to extend that advantage at the Miami Open, where she has no points to defend after missing last year’s event with a rib injury and will be aiming for a repeat of the “Sunshine Double” she achieved in 2022.

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Given that the Polish world No 1 conceded all of 15 games in the previous four rounds, that gives you some idea of what Marta Kostyuk was up against in her first WTA 1000 semi-final.

After reaching a first grand slam quarter-final at the Australian Open in January and a maiden WTA 500 final last month in San Diego, it has been a breakthrough season for Kostyuk. But the 21-year-old Ukrainian’s momentum came crashing to a halt against Swiatek, who produced a near-flawless display to reach her second final in three years in the California desert.

“It’s already a great tournament, so I’m really happy,” said Swiatek following her 6-2, 6-1 victory. “I didn’t really have any moment today in the match where I didn’t feel confident.”

Swiatek will face Maria Sakkari on Sunday in a repeat of the 2022 final. The 28-year-old Greek, in resurgent form in her first tournament since hiring David Witt as her coach, survived a topsy-turvy, rain-delayed battle against Coco Gauff, holding her nerve to prevail 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2 after missing match points in the second set. 

In a contest full of big hitting and athleticism, the first seven games went with serve before rain intervened. When play resumed about 20 minutes later, Sakkari capitalised on an error-strewn service game from Gauff to snatch a vital break, but no sooner had the Greek served out the opener than the heavens opened again. The hiatus seemed timely for Gauff, who required medical attention after complaining of nausea, but the third-seeded American returned two hours later in ragged form, falling 5-2 behind.

The contest looked to have run its course, but Gauff had other ideas. The US Open champion has struggled to find her best form in recent weeks, but whatever she has lacked in quality, she has compensated for with tenacity and resilience. Just as she did after falling a set and a break down against Clara Burel in her opening match, Gauff set about cancelling out the deficit, opening her shoulders, saving three match points, and eventually levelling the match on a tiebreak.

“That second set could have been different, but I was thinking of that finish line too much,” said Sakkari. “I was just thinking too much, how to close out the match. That didn’t really help me. It freaked me out a little bit. I was too nervous.”

As Sakkari reflected afterwards, losing would have been “the easy way out”. Instead, she embraced the challenge, digging in to recover from an early break in the decider and claim a cathartic victory.

“I just wanted to challenge myself one more time and see what I can do after losing that second set,” said Sakkari. “I also kept telling myself that you’re not the first or the last person that loses a set or a match.  

“I just bought into the game style where I had to be more aggressive and mix it up a little bit. I think that I was too predictable in the end of that second set. I’m just happy that I was able to close that out.”

There were no such problems for Swiatek, whose quality and consistency slowly suffocated Kostyuk’s challenge after an encouraging start by the Ukrainian. The blazing backhand winner with which the world No 32 wrapped up an emphatic opening game offered an early reminder of her firepower, but she was never able to reproduce such moments often enough to trouble the top seed.

There were times when Kostyuk looked capable of beating anyone. When she stepped inside the baseline and used her withering power to open up the court. When she rifled a backhand approach down the line and angled away a forehand volley. Whenever she had enough time to connect with a forehand that is among the biggest in the women’s game. Her downfall was rooted in an inability to repeat such moments consistently. She has the ingredients but, at this level, the recipe needs refining. 

Kostyuk would finish with 23 unforced errors to just six by Swiatek. Her woes were compounded by an excellent serving performance from the Pole, who made almost three-quarters of her first serves, winning 83% of those points, and did not face a break point throughout.

“I think it was a great match for me today,” said Swiatek. “I have all positive vibes.”

Swiatek has now won a tour-leading 19 matches this season. She will be a strong favourite to make it 20 against Sakkari on Sunday. 

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It was an outstanding performance from the 27-year-old, who drew on the full breadth of her substantial skillset, dictating the baseline exchanges with her bold ball-striking and rhythm-disrupting variety, defending brilliantly and weathering the storm that came her way as Gauff forced her way back into contention in the second set.

“Definitely I was coming to the court [thinking] that I can win, that I will let her play as much as I can, let her see that I’m fighting, and I think I really did this well,” said Siniakova. “In the end I kind of took that she doesn’t feel so well on the court, and I think that was the key, that I just let her play as much as I could.”

Granting Gauff licence to play is hardly the most obvious strategy, yet the strength of Siniakova’s conviction was evident from the moment she pounced on a high backhand to snatch a break in the opening game. The former doubles No 1 denied Gauff an immediate opportunity to break back with the first of several exquisite backhand drop shots and, having consolidated her advantage, she quickly forged further ahead, her willingness to chase every lost cause driving the American world No 3 to distraction.

Siniakova was aided and abetted by an erratic display from Gauff in her first match since losing to Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-finals of last month’s Australian Open. The 19-year-old made 45 unforced errors in total, 30 of which came off the forehand, and her woes were compounded by a poor performance on serve, where she won a meagre 30% of the points behind her second delivery. 

As one might expect from a collision of two of the world’s finest doubles players, there were some delightful touches at the net, not least in the sixth game, where Gauff raced on to a Siniakova drop shot to win a rat-a-tat exchange with a thumping overhead. That paved the way for a love break, but it was a rare early success for the American. Siniakova immediately restored her two-break cushion with a lovely piece of touch play and a rifled backhand winner, before serving out the set to love.

Gauff began the second set in a more aggressive key, finding her range off the ground as she moved inside the baseline and began ripping the ball with greater venom and conviction. As the American opened up a 4-0 lead, Siniakova won just five points, her mistakes mounting under the pressure exerted by her younger rival. But the Czech rallied brilliantly down the stretch, holding her nerve, scrambling for every shot, and forever making one more ball as Gauff was drawn into more unsightly errors. 

Sinakova will face the American qualifier Danielle Collins, a 6-4, 7-5 winner over Marie Bouzkova, for a place in the quarter-finals.

 “She’s a really aggressive player, she is going for the points, and I think it’s going to be kind of the same,” said Siniakova, a seven-time grand slam doubles champion. “I need to try to be more aggressive than her and maybe let her play as much as I can. I will try to focus on my game and fight for every point.”

On a day of shocks in Doha, Ons Jabeur and Maria Sakkari, respectively seeded fourth and seventh, also exited the tournament. 

Still suffering from “small problems” in the right knee on which she underwent minor surgery this time last year, Jabeur fell to a third defeat in four matches this season, losing 6-3, 6-2 against Lesia Tsurenko. It was the 37th-ranked Ukrainian’s first top-10 win for five years. 

Sakkari, meanwhile, came out on the wrong side of a tight three-setter against Linda Noskova, the Czech teenager who defeated Iga Swiatek en route to the quarter-finals of last month’s Australian Open. The Greek held a match point against Noskova’s serve at 5-3 in the second set only to fall to a 3-6, 7-6 (7-2), 7-5 defeat.

Naomi Osaka followed up her opening-round win over Caroline Garcia with a 6-3, 7-6 (11-9) victory against Croatia’s Petra Martic. It is the first time the former world No 1 has put together back-to-back victories since her return from maternity leave last month in Brisbane.

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On the eve of her opening match against Maria Sakkari, the Belarusian world No 1 led a chorus of disapproval over the tournament’s chaotic organisation, calling on the governing body of the women’s game to “do a better job” after the stadium court was barely laid in time for the players to complete a short practice on it.  

In Sakkari, Sabalenka appeared to find an outlet for her frustration, demolishing the Greek eighth seed 6-0, 6-1 with a ruthless, relentless performance that spoke volumes for her determination to retain the top ranking ahead of the chasing Iga Swiatek. 

But a statement victory did not mean the 25-year-old had nothing left to say, and afterwards Sabalenka doubled down on her criticism of the WTA.

“It’s another level of disrespect from the WTA for the players, because sometimes I don’t even feel safe to move on this court,” said Sabalenka. “That’s not the level I expect from the WTA Finals. 

“I mean, thank you for this challenge I’m facing right now, to kind of like learn how to adapt quick to the conditions,” she added caustically. “Thank you for that. But this is not something I expect from such a high-level tournament. 

“I’m really happy that I’m able to ignore all this and do everything I can to win every point I play.”

Sabalenka certainly did that, battling to an early break and then fending off four break points on her own serve to establish a lead that she went on to protect with tigerish ferocity. Despite an awkward wind and a quick, high-bouncing playing surface, many of the early rallies were well contested. But Sabalenka went about her business with unwavering intensity, immediately extinguishing the few opportunities her opponent was able to create, and as game after game rolled by it was impossible not to feel sympathy for Sakkari, who became visibly distraught in the latter stages.

“I was not feeling my game, not feeling comfortable out there,” said the 28-year-old, who qualified for the eight-woman event as the first alternate following Karolina Muchova’s withdrawal with a wrist injury. 

“Just a very, very bad day in the office. Hopefully it’s going to be better for Tuesday [when she faces Jessica Pegula].”

While Sakkari was left to lick her wounds, Sabalenka took to social media to elaborate on her concerns about the event’s organisation.

“I am very disappointed with the WTA and the experience so far at the WTA Finals,” the top seed wrote on Instagram. “As I said in my press conference tonight, as a player I feel disrespected by the WTA. I think most of us do. This is not the level of organisation we expect for the finals.

“To be honest, I don’t feel safe moving on this court a lot of the time, the bounce is not consistent at all, and we weren’t able to practise on this court until yesterday for the first time. It’s just not acceptable to me with so much on the line and so much at stake.”

A strong run in Bacalar Group would significantly bolster Sabalenka’s prospects of retaining the top ranking she inherited from Swiatek after the US Open. With 125 points on offer for each match played, and a further 125 allotted for each group stage win, three group victories would guarantee Sabalenka the coveted year-end No 1 ranking, bolstering her existing 630-point lead by 875 points to make a total of 1,505, even if she lost in the semi-finals. With an undefeated title win worth 1,500 points, Swiatek would be powerless to overtake her. 

Two group wins combined with a run to the final would also be enough for Sabalenka, giving her 950 points to extend her overall lead to 1,580 points – again, more than her Polish rival could amass even in a best-case scenario.

In the opening match of Bacalar Group, Pegula saw off Elena Rybakina, the fourth seed, in straight sets. Rybakina served for the opening set at 5-3 only for the American to break back before reeling off 10 of the final 12 games.

“I think she made maybe a couple of loose points, and I was able to kind of jump on it and find my momentum,” Pegula, seeded fifth, said of the turnaround. “I think I started serving a lot better after that, and was able to get a read on her serve and start finding my rhythm.”

Pegula refused to be drawn into a debate about the event’s organisation, simply remarking that the stadium court was “not good” while the 11th-hour decision to stage the finals in Cancún, announced last month, meant there was “no time to fix anything”. The WTA Tour addressed Sabalenka’s criticisms in a statement, however, insisting the court met the governing body’s performance standards.

“We’re pleased to host the WTA Finals in Cancún for the first time and worked hard to construct a stadium where the world’s top eight women’s tennis players and doubles teams compete head-to-head,” read the statement. “The team has worked diligently on an expedited timeline amid weather challenges to ensure the stadium and court meet our strict performance standards.”   

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Given the blustery conditions in the Mexican resort city of Cancún, Jabeur’s quick hands and exquisite feel may well put her among the title favourites. To most observers, however, the figure that really matters is No 1. That is the position Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek will dispute at the final stop on this season’s WTA Tour, where the champion will pocket up to 1,500 points – enough to either bridge or expand the 630-point gap between the two best players on the planet.

For the past seven weeks, bragging rights in the race to claim the year-end No 1 ranking have belonged to Sabalenka, who will be hoping to end the year in the same triumphant vein she began it when she stormed to a maiden grand slam title at the Australian Open. The mighty Belarusian, the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach the semi-finals or better at all four majors in the same calendar year, realised a lifelong ambition at last month’s US Open, rising to top spot for the first time despite losing to Coco Gauff in the final. The magnitude of that achievement is not lost on the 25-year-old, but neither has it gone to her head. 

“I wish I had known earlier that I can play that good,” quipped Sabalenka on the eve of her opener against Sakkari. “It’s just [been a] super great season, I think the best season in my life so far.

“[But] I think ranking, it’s just ranking, you know? It’s not like I go on court right now and everyone will be, ‘OK, I’m not playing, you’re No 1, good luck in the next round.’ It’s not changing anything. I still need to work hard. I still need to bring my best tennis on court. I think I even need to work more, because right now I feel like I’m a target for everyone.”

The latter sentiment is one Swiatek will recognise only too well. The Pole spoke of the pressures of playing with a target on her back as long ago as March, long before a fourth-round defeat to Jelena Ostapenko at Flushing Meadows drew a line under her 75-week reign at No 1. Swiatek reiterated that stance earlier this month at the China Open, her only tournament since, expressing her relief at being able to return to the practice court unencumbered by the “baggage” that goes with the top ranking. She certainly had the air of a player liberated, showcasing some intriguing technical and tactical improvements as she claimed her first WTA 1000 title of the season. 

That newfound adaptability, evident in Beijing in a relentless display of net-rushing against Sara Sorribes Tormo, and a flawless exhibition of controlled aggression in the final against Liudmila Samsonova, bodes well for Cancún, where the combination of swirling wind and a hastily-laid playing surface that has allowed scant practice time will be challenging for all the players. The need for Swiatek to tailor her game accordingly will be particularly acute given that she starts against Marketa Vondrousova, the wily Czech southpaw who outfoxed Jabeur at Wimbledon to become the first unseeded women’s champion in history. Not given to complacency, the French Open champion will be taking nothing for granted.

“You can always say the first two seeds are going to be the favourites, or the first seed,” said Swiatek, who has also been drawn alongside Gauff and Jabeur in Chetumal Group. “But honestly, so many things can happen this week. Overall, in any tennis tournament, I stopped thinking that way. I think any one of us can win this tournament. 

“I felt like [last year, when Swiatek compiled a 37-match winning streak and won Roland Garros and the US Open] was just kind of ridiculous, because people got used to me winning. It’s not like it’s going to happen all the time. So I think this season was kind of more normal, I would say, like most of the seasons we play, for even the top players.  

“The main thing I want to avoid is forgetting that this was also a good season and I still won some great tournaments. 

“Expectations from the outside, it was the thing that really sometimes stopped me this season. I’m going to work on not letting it stop me this time.”

In truth, little has stopped the 22-year-old this season. While Sabalenka has been the dominant force at the majors – although not in Paris, where Swiatek was crowned champion for the third time in four years – the Pole has won five titles and 63 matches, more than any of her peers. Samsonova, against whom Swiatek did not make a single unforced error in the Beijing final, caused quite a stir when she recently branded her rival “the real No 1”, yet it was easy to see what the Russian meant. Sabalenka’s superior grand slam record this season unquestionably makes her the rightful No 1 and yet, in the hard currency of trophies and victories, Swiatek has been the more successful player. 

If Sabalenka is to alter that skewed perception, she will need to combine a strong showing in Bacalar Group with a repeat of last year’s run to the final. Should she collect two wins from a group that includes Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula and Sakkari and then advance to the final, Swiatek will be powerless to stop her. Anything less, and the Pole will be in charge of her own destiny, although she would still probably need to win the title with an unblemished group record.

Yet, if the tournament unfolds along similar lines to recent editions, the battle for No 1 could yet be overshadowed. Should range and adaptability prove the determining factors, Jabeur and Vondrousova could emerge as disruptors-in-chief. With no previous winners in the field, either woman would be a fitting addition to a roster of left-field champions that includes Caroline Wozniacki, Elina Svitolina, Garbiñe Muguruza and Caroline Garcia. 

Victory for Jabeur would mark a fairy-tale conclusion to a chequered season that has included knee surgery and a heart-breaking defeat in the Wimbledon final for the second successive year. Neither a first French Open quarter-final nor title wins in Charleston and Ningbo – the latter her first on hard courts – have brought solace in the face of a loss that the Tunisian has described as the most painful of her career. If there has been an upside, it is that she has acquired a knack of adjusting to circumstance. 

“I learned to just adapt to everything,” said Jabeur, who opens against Gauff on Monday. “As a tennis player, I always try to adapt and not complain about a lot of things. Hopefully it will help me to play better. Definitely I will figure out how to play my best tennis in the wind.”

Vondrousova, whose quarter-final run at the US Open underlined how impressively she has adapted to life as a grand slam winner, will likewise look to make the most of her guile and tactical intelligence.

“I’m more crafty,” said the 24-year-old. “I don’t have as much power as other girls, maybe. I feel like I’m the smallest here, too. It’s a bit tough sometimes.  

“Since I was small, I was always the smallest, so I had to find ways. I feel like my lefty [style] is also a bit annoying for other players. That’s what I’m trying to do, just to be annoying.”

Gauff, meanwhile, is hopeful that an upbringing in the swirling winds of Delray Beach, Florida will work to her advantage as she seeks to reproduce the winning blend of defence and attack that earned her the US Open title.

“I will need to adjust because the wind is quite heavy,” said the 19-year-old, who lost all through of her group matches in straight sets last year in Fort Worth. “For the past few days, when I’ve been trying to practice here, it’s been really tough.

“For sure, I’m going to stick to my game. I’m going to try to still play aggressive. Of course, the serve is a weapon, so I’ll try to do my best to adjust.”

With Swiatek the favourite, adjustment is likely to be the watchword in Chetumal Group, potentially giving Jabeur or Vondrousova a slight edge. Conversely, Bacalar Group will be shaped by a collision of irresistible forces, in the shape of Sabalenka and Rybakina, and immovable objects, in the form of Pegula and Sakkari. A quarter-final loss to Rybakina in Beijing notwithstanding, a Sabalenka wobble would be a major surprise. The wider outlook is harder to predict. Pegula has little to lose after drawing a blank on her debut in Fort Worth last year, while Rybakina, the fourth seed and former Wimbledon champion, has admitted to struggling with the wind in practice. 

That leaves Sakkari, in as an alternate following the withdrawal of Karolina Muchova with a wrist injury, as a potential fly in the ointment for the trio of top-five players with whom she finds herself bracketed. A semi-finalist in each of her two previous appearances at the finals, the Greek world No 9 not only has the pedigree to get out of the group but also has a deep affinity for the host country, which she has come to see as a home for home. That feelgood factor, underlined by last month’s title win in Guadalajara, her first at WTA 1000 level, deepens the suspicion that Sakkari, effectively playing with house money, could emerge as the surprise package of the group.

“I just feel like the crowd loves me here, and I love them too,” said Sakkari. “I’ve said it many times: there’s a special connection. This week is like a celebration for me. I’m grateful to be here, to be competing again in the finals, because three times in a row is I think a great achievement.  

“I’m just going to go out there and enjoy. It would be amazing to win the whole thing, that’s my ultimate goal, of course, but I don’t want to think of winning or losing. I just want to feel like, ‘You know what, I was given that great opportunity’ – and make the most out of it.”

Semi-finals: Swiatek to defeat Sakkari; Jabeur to defeat Sabalenka.

Final: Swiatek to beat Jabeur.

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Consigned to the boondocks of Court 5 for his first-round match against Roberto Carballes Baena, a 30-year-old Spaniard ranked 63 in the world, Rune made little attempt to disguise his displeasure. “In case you can[’t] find Court 5, this is where I play my first match Monday,” the Danish fourth seed wrote pointedly on social media at the weekend, alongside a map of the grounds. 

In the event, Rune will have been grateful that the latest lowlight of a wretched, injury-hit summer was not given a bigger stage. Struggling with his game and his body, the 20-year-old tumbled to a chastening 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 defeat as Carballes Baena claimed the first top-10 win of his career. 

It was the Spaniard’s second victory in three meetings with Rune, Carballes Baena having won in straight sets on the clay courts of Cordoba last year, and the Dane was quick to acknowledge the quality of his opponent, refusing to blame his show-court exile for the defeat even as he elaborated on his bafflement at the decision. 

“It’s not difficult, but it’s different,” said Rune. “You’re more close to all the people. It’s a nice atmosphere. So it’s no problem with the court. I just didn’t expect to play on that court.

“[The better] you get in the ranking, the more benefits you should get with playing in better conditions. I think that’s normal way, and it’s also how the ATP do [things] with all the players. But they didn’t do it with me here.  

“That’s obviously disappointing, but [I’m] not going to blame the court [for] the loss. He played very, very solid. Credit to him.

“I played probably more matches on outside courts in my life than big courts, so all good.”

Be that as it may, the controversy was clearly a distraction to Rune, who agreed with the suggestion of Peter Bastiansen, a former ATP player turned Danish TV pundit, that the scheduling showed a “lack of respect”. It was not the only distraction he would encounter. Court 5 is situated in the middle of a bank of three courts on the west side of Arthur Ashe Stadium, and the attendant plethora of sights, sounds and smells provides ample opportunity for the focus to wander. 

Amid the hustle and bustle, Rune certainly looked as though his mind was elsewhere, occasionally labouring physically and racking up an uncharacteristic 43 unforced errors. A dozen of those came in the first set, where the Dane was broken in the fifth game. More alarming for Rune than the score-line, however, was Carballes Baena’s ability to grasp the nettle in the baseline exchanges. Only in the second set, where the Spaniard’s level dropped, was Rune able to make his signature counter-punching tell. Eleven of Carballes Baena’s 21 unforced errors came in that passage of play, but his resilience was formidable down the stretch, where his error-count dropped to zero.

The past two months have been difficult for Rune. Since a successful grass-court season that brought a first semi-final at Queen’s Club and a maiden Wimbledon quarter-final, the Dane has struggled with a back injury. Beaten by Marcos Giron in his opening match in Toronto, Rune was forced to retire at a set and a break down against Mackenzie McDonald in Cincinnati. Rune’s limited activity and physical difficulties – he received treatment here for a problem with his left knee – have clearly left him well short of his usual sharpness. 

“It’s not ideal that I didn’t get more matches coming into this tournament, because the body, it’s hard if you’re not in the rhythm,” said Rune. 

It’s also hard if you’re focusing on scheduling decisions over which you have no control, and Rune would do well to take a leaf out of Caroline Wozniacki’s book. Six years ago, his compatriot was also assigned to Court 5 in the opening round only for the weather to intervene, resulting in the match being moved to Court 17. Importantly, though, Wozniacki kept her counsel until after the contest, only taking aim at the original decision following a three-set loss to Ekaterina Makarova. Moral of the story? Play first, complain later.

There were no such problems for the returning Wozniacki this time around, the former world No 1 sweeping past Tatiana Prozorova 6-3, 6-2 to set up an intriguing second-round meeting with Petra Kvitova, the 11th seed and former Wimbledon champion.

Maria Sakkari, seeded eighth, was another early casualty, falling 6-4, 6-4 to Rebeka Masarova, the Spanish world No 71. It was the Greek eighth seed’s third successive defeat in the opening round of a slam, and she cut a distraught figure afterwards, suggesting she may take a period away from the game.

“I just feel like my level was, and has been, poor, and I have to do something about it,” said Sakkari. “It’s very uncertain now, I don’t know what I’m going to do, whether I’ll take a break or not.”

The post Rune and Sakkari head early casualty list at US Open appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Five days ago, Alcaraz staged a masterclass in Indian Wells to dismantle Daniil Medvedev in slow, windy conditions in the final of Indian Wells. In Miami, on a day when the heat and humidity were such that Ons Jabeur, the women’s fourth seed, needed medical attention as she laboured to an early defeat, Alcaraz simply picked up from where he left off in southern California. Never mind the slicker courts. Never mind the quicker balls. If Alcaraz is to retain the world No 1 ranking he regained from Novak Djokovic last weekend, nothing less than a successful title defence will do. The 19-year-old looked intent on doing just that.     

“I feel great for my first match here, getting used to these conditions,” Alcaraz told the Tennis Channel’s Prakash Amritraj. 

“I feel prepared for this week. I had some days off [after Indian Wells] to take a rest a little bit. Of course, I practised twice here before I started the tournament. After this match, it’s a perfect start. I feel ready for this tournament.

“For me, it’s a totally different tournament [in terms of] conditions. Here there is more humidity, the court is faster. I have to be ready and get used to this court and these conditions. I would say I’m a guy who adapts his game very well, but it’s tough to get used to different conditions like this.”

It did not appear overly tough as Alcaraz rattled off 11 straight points at the start of the match, eventually wrapping up the opening set in just 23 minutes after not dropping a single point on serve. Time and again, the Spaniard’s weighty returns materialised at Bagnis’s feet almost before the hapless world 100 had even completed his service motion. The Argentinian was never allowed to get comfortable in the baseline exchanges, the ball whirring up around his shoulders or hurtling into faraway corners with such dispiriting frequency that, when he finally held serve in the ninth game of the match to make a belated appearance on the scoreboard, he hurled his racket skywards in celebration. There was more joy for Bagnis in the next game as Alcaraz, his focus momentarily wavering, dropped serve to love. Predictably, it proved short-lived.

Elsewhere in the men’s draw, ninth seed Taylor Fritz advanced to a third-round meeting with Denis Shapovalov courtesy of a 6-4, 6-1 win over Emilio Nava, a 21-year-old American wild card ranked 182nd. Alexander Zverev was an early casualty, however, the former world No 2 committing 32 unforced errors as he fell 6-0, 6-4 to Taro Daniel of Japan.

“In the first set he was struggling and I just didn’t want to let him get his rhythm back,” said Daniel. “Sometimes it’s a matter of letting them keep playing badly. It’s a little bit of a dirty fight.”

The biggest shocks were reserved for the women’s draw, where Jabeur, the fourth seed, was once again an early casualty following last week’s loss to Marketa Vondrousova in Indian Wells. The Tunisian, continuing her return from knee surgery was beaten 6-2, 6-2 by Russian qualifier Varvara Gracheva, the world No 55.

“The plan was, of course like all matches, to be as stable as possible, to try to make her work as much points as possible, and of course wait for comfortable ones to attack,” said Gracheva following her third top-10 win of the season.

Caroline Garcia, the fifth seed and WTA Finals champion, was beaten 6-2, 6-3 by Sorana Cirstea. The Romanian world No 74 also defeated her in Indian Wells. 

Bianca Andreescu, the former US Open champion, won an epic contest against Maria Sakkari, taking down the seventh seed 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in a contest spanning three hours and four minutes. 

“I think it’s just another step in gaining most of my confidence back,” said Andreescu, whose career has been blighted by injuries since her victory at Flushing Meadows in 2019. “I’m feeling really good on the court. 

“I’m trying to be as fearless as I can be. It’s not always easy, but I feel like I’m getting there, and wins like this obviously help with that because at this point I think it’s just me getting matches in and playing tough rounds like this and knowing I can win.”

The post Alcaraz starts Miami Open defence in style as Jabeur falls appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

Though she has struggled to produce her best in the California desert, Sakkari, the sixth seed, has made gladiatorial progress through the bottom half of the draw. The tone was set when she overcame an error-strewn start to her opener against Shelby Rogers, recovering from a set down to claim a first win in four meetings with the American, and she subsequently went the distance against both Anhelina Kalinina – another player against whom she had a losing record – and Karolina Pliskova, the Czech former world No 1, who beat her 6-1, 6-2 last month in Dubai. 

For Sakkari, it has been a tournament for conquering demons, for living to fight another day, for finding a way without ever quite finding form.

In Kvitova, however, the Greek world No 7 faced a player who bows to no one in her ability to navigate a crisis. The Czech not only saved four match points against Jessica Pegula in the last 16, winning a dramatic final-set tiebreak 13-11 to leave the American third seed musing on how she would “never get used to the ups and downs of this sport”, but also bounced back from a first-set whitewash at the hands of Jelena Ostapenko a round earlier. In fact, before facing Sakkari, Kvitova had won seven of her previous eight three-setters. 

No wonder the Greek, who recovered from a set and a break down, hailed “a bloody good win” after reaching the third WTA 1000 semi-final of her career.

“I’m just telling myself, ‘Look, you’re not playing your best tennis and you’re still winning and beating amazing players,’” said Sakkari after her seventh long-haul victory of the season. “I mean, my draw was, I would say, bloody tough.

“By just surviving and just finding ways, eventually I’m sure that my game is going to get better. I really want to see how it’s going to be when I start feeling good with my game.

“I think it’s been a very, very good week. I’m gaining a lot of confidence out of that, because it’s very easy when you win matches by playing good, but it’s not easy to beat good players by playing this way.”

It is harder still when you begin with a shank and a trio of unforced errors to lose your opening service game to love, as Sakkari did here. Kvitova’s fast start afforded her the freedom to continue in the free-swinging vein that propelled her to victory against Pegula. In the seventh game the 33-year-old broke to love for a second time, punishing Sakkari for a faltering performance on serve. The Greek made barely a third of her first serves in the opener and, although she narrowed a 5-2 deficit by winning two straight games, even that modest success was largely down to a loose passage of play from Kvitova.

With Sakkari overpressing, Kvitova seized the initiative early in the second set, pouncing on a short second serve to break before holding to consolidate. Had Sakkari not found a big plus-one forehand to stave off a point for a double break, her challenge would almost certainly have been extinguished. Instead, encouraged that another act of escapology might be possible, she began to work her way back into contention. Her serving improved markedly. Four break points were fended off. Then, with Kvitova serving at 5-6 and looking increasingly ragged off the ground, Sakkari doggedly worked her way back into a game that the Czech had led 40-0. She fashioned a set point, Kvitova missed a forehand, and suddenly the contest turned on its head, Sakkari’s superior consistency down the stretch proving decisive as Kvitova finished the match with 52 unforced errors. 

“The first set and a half, I felt like an amateur,” said Sakkari. “She was playing very, very good. I just didn’t know what to do.

“But then I just told myself to keep trying and keep fighting. Eventually I started playing better, which was a good thing. It was a lifesaver.”

Given that she faces Aryna Sabalenka next, Sakkari will need to find her A game quicky if she is to repeat last year’s run to the final. Sabalenka, the second seed, saw off Coco Gauff 6-4, 6-0 to claim her 16th win of the season, and only her second against the sixth-seeded American, who had won three of their four previous meetings coming into the contest. 

As Sabalenka explained, she is a different player since winning her first grand slam title at January’s Australian Open.

“I think I’m more calm on court, and I’m able to control my emotions, which helps me to stay in the game no matter what, and just fight for every point, without losing my mind and without giving easy points to opponents,” said Sabalenka.

The post Sakkari fights back to defeat Kvitova in Indian Wells appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

After fighting her way back from a set down in three consecutive rounds, Swiatek found her stride at the sharp end of the tournament and soon found herself hoisting a trophy again, brushing aside Maria Sakkari in the final to win a second tournament in a row. With her 11th straight victory, she rose to No 2 in the world for the first time, joining Agnieszka Radwanska as the highest-ranked Polish player in history. Life, it seemed, could not get any better. 

Except it did. Days later, Ashleigh Barty retired and Swiatek was crowned No 1. She marked the occasion by winning the Miami Open. Then came titles in Stuttgart, Rome and, in Paris, a second grand slam title. By the time she was finally beaten by Alizé Cornet in the third round of Wimbledon, she had accumulated 37 consecutive wins, equalling the longest winning streak since 1990. Before the year was out, she would add the US Open and San Diego titles to her burgeoning collection. It was a season for the ages.

But if 2022 was all about winning, this year is about dealing with the fallout from all that success. It is a task that runs significantly deeper than just defending points. What does success even look like, when you’ve already achieved so much? 

It is a brave new world, a reality brought home to Swiatek following her recent tear through the Middle Eastern swing. After an emphatic title defence in Doha, where she conceded just five games in three matches, the 21-year-old advanced to the final of the season’s first WTA 1000 event in Dubai, where she fell one match short of perfection against Barbora Krejcikova. Twelve months ago, Swiatek’s run would have been greeted with universal acclaim; now, the merest hint of vulnerability becomes a talking point. Such is the lot of the world’s top-ranked player. 

“Being No 1, I didn’t even dream about it, because I thought it’s not possible,” said Swiatek. “So it’s something that is totally over my expectations, and it’s a place where anyone would want to be. But for sure, it comes with a lot of pressure and expectations. 

“For example, after Doha and Dubai I felt it pretty strongly, because I won a WTA 500 and then I was in the final of a 1000, and it was like a small streak of matches that were pretty solid and I was really composed. But still I lost in a final, and people were surprised, slash not happy with the performance, slash just critical. 

“And it made me think that last year, before this huge streak, before winning all these tournaments, I would be so happy with the result. But because of these comments right now, I felt like, ‘Ooh, that’s not enough,’ you know. 

“So I’m trying not to read a lot of these things and I don’t want it to influence me, because I’m happy with the work I’ve [done] and how I played in Doha and Dubai. But this is an example of how people’s attitude changed a little bit, and I don’t think it’s a positive change.”

Positive change is an area in which Swiatek is well versed. Her semi-final run at last year’s Australian Open, an early indication of the hard-court highs to come, was underpinned by a newfound willingness to combine her defensive skills with a more aggressive approach. This year, after losing early in Melbourne to Elena Rybakina, she again changed tack to telling effect, retreating to Warsaw to refine her technique and reset her mind. In Indian Wells, where she will open her title defence against Claire Liu, a 22-year-old Californian ranked 56th, Swiatek will seek to implement the tactical lessons gleaned from her loss to Krejcikova in Dubai. 

“From every match I can take different stuff, because sometimes you make technical mistakes, and it’s pretty easy then, because you go and you work on that, and it’s getting better usually,” she said. 

“Sometimes it’s tactical, so it depends. But it’s always about analysing and about approaching another tournament with the knowledge that you gained. 

“For example, after Australia I knew technically what I had to change and my coach also knew, so we just worked in a really physical way on court for a couple of hours a day to make it better. But I think in Dubai it was more tactical, so from every defeat I can take a lot – and I’m using that knowledge, for sure.”

Given her draw, Swiatek is likely to need every advantage at her disposal. The third round could pit her against Bianca Andreescu, the 32nd seed and former US Open champion, while her projected last-16 opponent is Beatriz Haddad Maia, the powerful Brazilian who defeated her at the Canadian Open last autumn. Awaiting in the quarter-finals, if the seedings hold, will be Caroline Garcia, the French fifth seed. Garcia, a finalist in Lyon and Monterrey already this season, scored a memorable win over Swiatek at the Poland Open last summer, although she has struggled in the past to bring her formidable array of attacking skills to bear in the slow, often blustery conditions at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

With Ons Jabeur, the fourth seed, and Rybakina, the Wimbledon champion, both returning from injury, Victoria Azarenka could emerge as the chief threat to Swiatek’s title defence in the second quarter. Twice a champion in the California desert – and runner-up to Paula Badosa in a thrilling three-set final two years ago – Azarenka knows the course and distance better than most. First, though, the Belarusian must navigate her way through a potentially tricky opener against the gifted and versatile Karolina Muchova.

Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, has only once advanced as far as the fourth round but, despite her protestations to the contrary, there was little sign of her struggling to bring her power to bear against Russia’s Evgeniya Rodina. 

“It was tricky game, I would say,” said Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion, after opening her challenge with an impressive 6-2, 6-0 victory. “I didn’t expect her to play that slow. I was struggling a little bit with adjusting [to] the balls, because it was super slow. Super happy with this win.”

Elsewhere in the bottom half, Sakkari took advantage of a rain delay to fight back from a set down against Shelby Rogers. The Greek, seeded seventh, claimed her first win in four meetings with Rogers, who struggled with a calf injury in the final set, 2-6, 6-4, 6-0. Projected to meet Jessica Pegula in the quarter-finals, Sakkari acknowledged that she will need to improve markedly if she is to make a second successive final.

“My level is nowhere near where I want it to be, but I’m OK with that and I’m going to work on it every single day in this tournament,” said Sakkari. “Obviously there is a little bit of pressure because I did well last year, but I just want to spend as much time as I can here.”

Pegula, the third seed, likewise came from a set down, seeing off Italy’s Camila Giorgi 3-6, 6-1, 6-2. The American remains the favourite to come through the third quarter but, on current form, Krejcikova looks like the player most likely to upset the applecart in the bottom half. The Czech, who got her campaign up and running with a 6-1, 6-2 over Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska, could face Sabalenka in round three.

Semi-final predictions: Swiatek to beat Azarenka; Pegula to beat Krejcikova.

Final prediction: Swiatek to beat Pegula.

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