New York (AFP) – Iga Swiatek covered her head with a white towel while changing limbs after landing and breaking it in the fourth round of the US Open on Monday.
She continued to make mistakes, seemingly puzzled by her team in the box.
In the end, Swiatek regained her accuracy and began playing like the world number one, settling first in the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows. He came back from behind to defeat Julie Niemeyer 2-6, 6-4, 6-0 at Louis Armstrong Stadium.
“I feel proud that I have not lost faith,” Swiatek said.
The 21-year-old Pole will face a new player for the first time in the US Open quarter-finals. It will be Jessica Pegula, the top-ranked American at the moment, who sent two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-3, 6-2 in a 45-minute match during Game Three because of the retractable roof at Arthur Ashe Stadium not closed when it started raining. It rains.
Pegula described the moment as “a little frustrating” and that it was complicated for him in the early stages of the duel. “You’re in limbo, not knowing what to do.”
The US Tennis Association said in a statement that “weather experts” have told organizers that no heavy rain is expected. “Unfortunately, heavy rain fell,” the statement added.
Pegula, the 28-year-old New Yorker whose parents own the Bills Buffalo in the NFL and the Buffalo Sabers in the Hockey League, played her last three Group A games on Monday, culminating in a double-fault from Kvitova. The eighth seed also got the last six matches of the second set after trailing 2-0 to the 21st seed.
This will be Pegula’s third appearance in this year’s Pioneer Quarterfinals – and the third against the top ranked women.
He lost to Ash Barty at the Australian Open, a tournament that Barty eventually won before retiring from tennis. He surrendered to Swiatek at the French Open, which Swiatek went on to win his second tournament in Paris.
“I have to do something, be smart and be in touch,” Pegola said.
Swiatek entered New York with a 4-4 score after seeing 37 consecutive wins that led him to six consecutive titles.
On Monday, she heard her usual group roster – a mix of Pearl Jam, AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and Gorillaz – but fell out for the win to Neiemer, who is currently ranked 108. But the German beat her to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon two months ago, her participation Only second in the four slams.
Meanwhile, Czech Karolina Pliskova agreed to reach the quarter-finals after beating Belarusian Victoria Azarenka 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-2.
Pliskoka, who became number one in the world, was runner-up at the 2016 US Open and Wimbledon 2021. She will meet the winner in the duel between Aryna Sabalenka and Danielle Collins.
Azarenka, two-time Australian Open champion, lost for the fifth time in nine duels against Pliskova.
Pliskova’s next competitor will be another Belarus: Arina Sabalenka. The sixth seed went from low to high to beat American Danielle Collins 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Sabalenka, a semi-finalist at the US Open, was unable to compete at Wimbledon two months ago after Slam’s grass courts banned all players from her country and Russia due to the Ukrainian invasion.
