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.

The post Imperious Swiatek storms into Madrid Open quarter-finals appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

While the Pole’s game has acquired a more aggressive edge since that landmark victory, stability has been the principal hallmark of her career to date, most notably in the form of a 75-week stay at world No 1 and, last season, a 37-match winning streak, the longest unbeaten run this century. Continuity – the calm at the eye of the hurricane, as Daria Abramowicz, Swiatek’s psychologist, likes to put it – has been key throughout.  

Of late, though, changes have come thick and fast for the four-time grand slam champion. Swiatek’s loss to Veronika Kudermetova in Tokyo last week, her first in five matches against the Russian, followed a summer in which she also suffered a first defeat in eight meetings with Coco Gauff and a first tour-level reverse against Jessica Pegula in four years. At the US Open, meanwhile, Swiatek’s reign as champion was ended by Jelena Ostapenko, enabling Aryna Sabalenka to overtake her at the top of the rankings. It has been a period of rare upheaval.  

In the face of adversity, the natural inclination would perhaps have been to prioritise ranking points in an effort to make up ground on Sabalenka and secure the year-end No 1 ranking. Instead, Swiatek has embraced her altered circumstances, gratefully casting aside the baggage that goes with top spot to focus on adding new dimensions to her game.

The fruits of her labours on the practice court were evident as Swiatek saw off Sara Sorribes Tormo in the opening round of the China Open. After making 50 unforced errors against Kudermetova in Tokyo, Sorribes Tormo provided an ideal challenge for the Pole, forcing her to balance consistency with aggression in the face of the steady Spaniard’s dogged retrieving and counter-punching. Swiatek’s cause was aided by a greater willingness to approach the net and a visible improvement in her execution once there.

“I felt really confident and comfortable, because I’ve been practising that a lot,” said Swiatek, who won all but four of her 17 net points in the opening set and 17 of 27 overall.

“I’m pretty proud of my performance at the net, because technically I feel like my volley has changed. I’m really happy with that. I think against some players it’s kind of necessary to go to the net, and today was that kind of a match. I’m happy it was my decision.

“It was different to some matches I’ve played, when I couldn’t force myself to go forward. I’m happy that the work I’m doing in terms of my volleys [is] paying off and I can see the progress.”

The most visible change has been on the forehand volley. To the naked eye, Swiatek appears to be getting greater shoulder turn and stepping through the stroke more aggressively. Whatever the precise nature of the technical changes, though, the shot is noticeably more compact and, against Sorribes Tormo, it was the source of several impressive winners. One such moment came in the third game, where Swiatek underlined her commitment to attack by twice charging in behind heavy forehands; lobbed the first time, she made no mistake on the second, slotting a crisp forehand volley into the open court.

“I think just working on it is going to give me a lot of change,” said Swiatek. “We are working on it. It’s important to [Tomasz Wiktorowski, her coach] to make me a more complete player in terms of that.

“It’s both the decision-making and playing the volley right technically. For now I wouldn’t say it’s an issue, because I felt pretty confident [against Sorribes Tormo]. I know sometimes stress can kind of mess up the technique. I can see I’m doing progress because of matches like today.”

As Swiatek would be the first to admit, there is always room for improvement. The backhand volley, which she has a tendency to guide rather than punch, remains a work in progress for the moment. But there too there are signs of progress – notably, Swiatek is making less use of her left hand, which has often remained somewhat awkwardly on the throat or head of the racket in the past – and there could be no denying the effectiveness of the one-handed backhand volley she stabbed away for a winner as she served to consolidate a break early in the second set against Sorribes Tormo.

As Swiatek seeks to expand her repertoire, she is well aware that technical refinements will need to be allied with a clear sense of how best to deploy her skills. What works against one opponent may not work against another, and the Pole’s net-rushing tactics were notably absent in the next round as she saw off Varvara Gracheva to move into the last 16 in Beijing. Against Sorribes Tormo, the priority was to avoid being drawn into the prolonged baseline exchanges on which the Spaniard thrives; against the more aggressive Gracheva, a Moscow-born Frenchwoman ranked 47 in the world, steadiness was the order of the day. The readiness with which Swiatek adapted to those contrasting challenges over the course of two consecutive days bodes well for the next phase in the evolution of her game.

“I feel like I played a more solid game than in Tokyo, for example,” said Swiatek following a 6-4, 6-1 win over Gracheva that sets up a first meeting with Polish compatriot Magda Linette. “I’m making less mistakes, so there are longer rallies. But I’m happy to play them. I’m kind of taking confidence from that.”

Swiatek can take confidence too from her growing tactical options. Her outstanding speed and athleticism, and the quality of her transition game, are well-suited to a bolder approach, while her determination to add new layers to an already substantial game is reminiscent of her childhood idol Rafael Nadal. In that regard, one is reminded of a comment made by Toni Nadal, Rafa’s uncle and former coach, on the eve of the 2008 Wimbledon final.

“Many people say, ‘Rafael, his grass game has problems,’” said Uncle Toni. “They don’t remember he is only 22 years old. It is normal to improve still at this age. Give him time.”

Fifteen years on, those words feel no less applicable to Swiatek, who is also 22 and has the same number of majors as Nadal had then. The No 1 ranking may be gone for now, but there is a palpable sense that the Pole’s journey in the game is only just beginning.

The post Swiatek embraces change at the China Open appeared first on Love Game Tennis.

A year ago, the Brazilian world No 14 won the first tour-level titles of her career in Nottingham and Birmingham. She has since reached a first WTA 1000 final in Toronto, made a debut appearance at the WTA Finals alongside Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina, and reached the quarter-finals or better in Portoroz, Tokyo, Talinn, Adelaide, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Stuttgart and Rome. Along the way, she has beaten Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and Maria Sakkari. 

It is a formidable body of work, one that has confirmed the 27-year-old as the finest female player to come out of Brazil since Maria Bueno, who won three Wimbledon titles and four US Open crowns between 1959 and 1966. Yet there has been one glaring hole in her resumé: an inability to compile a grand slam run commensurate with her talent. Improbably, Haddad Maia arrived in Paris having never previously advanced beyond the second round of a major in singles.

It has been a heavy cross to bear for a player regularly mentioned in the same breath as Bueno and Gustavo Kuerten, who won the first of his three titles in Paris in 1997, shortly after Haddad Maia’s first birthday. But the landscape has altered over the past nine days at Roland Garros. On Monday, Haddad Maia survived an epic contest against Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo to become the first Brazilian quarter-finalist in Paris since Bueno in 1968. 

In a triumph of industry, self-belief and determination, the 14th seed recovered from a set and a double break down to prevail 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 7-5 in three hours and 51 minutes. It was the longest tour-level match of the year – eclipsing by 10 minutes the mark set by Haddad Maia and Anhelina Kalinina in Rome last month – and third longest main draw women’s singles match at the French Open in the open era.

“It’s a dream,” said Haddad Maia. “I think since I started to play tennis, me, my family, and everybody from my team, I was dreaming and working very hard for this moment.  

“I’m very proud for what I did today, and also the last matches, because I had to fight a lot.”

That is putting it mildly. Haddad Maia recovered from match point down in the previous round against Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova, and this was the third successive match in which she has been extended to a deciding set. To give her achievement some context, it took the Brazilian only 13 minutes less to subdue Sorribes Tormo than Swiatek has spent on court in four matches, although admittedly that statistic is somewhat skewed by Lesia Tsurenko’s retirement with illness just 31 minutes into her fourth-round meeting with the Pole.

Had she been able to convert any of the three match points she held in the ninth game of the decider, Haddad Maia would have been home and hosed almost half an hour earlier.

But Sorribes Tormo, a player of ferocious intensity and competitive appetite, is not noted for making life easy on her opponents. Neither woman had previously made the fourth round of a major and, with so much at stake, a meeting of two of the tour’s most courageous competitors was never likely to be a straightforward affair.

So it proved. After a blistering start by Haddad Maia, Sorribes Tormo chiselled away at a 5-2 first-set deficit, making ball after ball, keeping the Brazilian away from the centre of the court with the spin and penetration of her forehand, revelling in the chance to ensnare her opponent in the kind of physical, mental and emotion marathon that is her forte. 

A first set of six breaks culminated with a tiebreak in which Sorribes Tormo won a sequence of brutal, extended rallies. When went on to edge a 10-minute battle to break again at the start of the second set, combining some dazzling defensive play with powerful counterpunching, audacious drop shots and even a brilliant lob volley, the tide looked to be turning decisively in her favour.

That impression deepened when Sorribes Tormo battled to a 12-minute hold before stealing into the net to seize a second break with a drop volley. By this point, the 6ft Haddad Maia was being forced to play most of the rallies from above head height as Sorribes Tormo sought to nullify the power of the Brazilian, who had resolved that attack was the best form of defence, by throwing up looped topspin balls. 

But Haddad Maia, who was only 15 years old when she made the first of four visits to the surgeon’s table, is no stranger to adversity. Even as her glances towards her coach, Rafael Paciaroni, became more frequent, so her spirit rose. Stepping inside the baseline, she rediscovered her quality and her conviction, claiming 11 of the next 14 games to move within touching distance of victory.

“Tennis is not 100-metre race, it’s a marathon,” said Haddad Maia. “Especially my matches. I worked very hard since [I was] young, and my mentality is to not give up, always to give one more chance to [myself], even if things are not going the way that I want. 

“I think the key today was the discipline, to be calm and to accept that, okay, I was missing. Okay, she was playing better. She changed the game. 

“But we are in Roland Garros playing on Suzanne Lenglen, and I will try until the last point. I think the key was to fight today.”

That was never more the case than when Sorribes Tormo fought off three match points against her serve at 3-5 in the decider, the last with an impudent flicked pass that bamboozled Haddad Maia into stabbing the ball long after the Spaniard had shaped to go the way.

It set the scene for a dramatic finale, Sorribes Tormo summoning a final gesture of defiance to break Haddad Maia as she served for the match, only for the Brazilian to reclaim the break and complete the job at the second time of asking. Having blasted her 65th winner of the afternoon, Haddad Maia’s features crumpled with emotion.

“I think the emotions were there for both of us,” said Haddad Maia. “As I said [after] the last match, when we play big matches against big players in big tournaments – we played almost four hours – it’s not only about tennis, it’s a lot of things that come through our minds.

“I was trying to give one more chance for me, because I knew that I was missing a few shots. But I’m very happy and proud that I did not give up and I was trying to push until my limit. I think I deserve it because of that.”

Few would argue. Haddad Maia will now face Ons Jabeur, the seventh seed, with more history on the line as she attempts to become the first Brazilian woman to make the semi-finals since Bueno in 1966. Jabeur saw off Bernarda Pera of the United States 6-3, 6-1.

The winner of that match will face either Swiatek or Coco Gauff, who defeated Slovenia’s Anna Schmiedlova 7-5, 6-2 to set up a repeat of last year’s final.

“Since last year I have been wanting to play [Swiatek], especially at this tournament,” said Gauff. “I’m the type of mentality, if you want to be the best you have to beat the best. I think also if you want to improve, you have to play the best.”

In the men’s draw, Holger Rune will face Casper Ruud in the last eight after edging past Francisco Cerúndolo of Argentina 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (10-7). The match was marred by a moment of controversy when the chair umpire, Kader Nouni, failed to spot a double bounce early in the third set as Rune scrambled to hoist up a defensive lob. To the evident irritation of Cerúndolo, the Danish sixth seed failed to own up to the error and went on to break for 3-1. 

“When I was hitting the ball, I didn’t know, I just ran for it,” said Rune. “I saw it after the next point on the TV, and I saw it was a double bounce. But the point already happened and [Nouni] called the score.  

“So I felt sorry. Sorry for him. Yeah, I mean, then I managed to break him. I held serve. Then after he broke me, it was close again. You know, this is tennis. This is sports. Some umpires, they make mistakes. Some for me; some for him. That’s life.”

Ruud, the fourth seed, defeated Chile’s Nicolás Jarry 7-6 (7-3), 7-5, 7-5 to set up a repeat of last year’s quarter-final against Rune, which ended with a frosty handshake from the Dane. Rune later accused Ruud of screaming in his face in the locker room, a claim the Norwegian denied.

The post Haddad Maia makes history with epic French Open win appeared first on Love Game Tennis.