By Richard Pagliaro | Wednesday, August 16, 2023

 

World No. 1 Iga Swiatek won nine straight games dismissing Danielle Collins 6-1, 6-0 and Montreal champion Jessica Pegula rallied past Martina Trevisan.

Photo credit: Omnium Banque Internationale Facebook

Unruly balls bothered Iga Swiatek in her last Cincinnati appearance.

Today, Swiatek played committed control freak in her Cincinnati return.

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Pounding the ball and pulverizing Danielle Collins' second serve, Swiatek streaked through nine games in a row crushing Collins 6-1, 6-0 to roll into the Cincinnati round of 16.



"For sure it was a really solid match and I felt I'm not doing a lot of mistakes," Swiatek said. "I'm happy I didn't give anything for free.

"Yeah, just kind of I could be proactive and not really, you know, overanalyze everything, just go for it. I'm happy that I did that."

The reigning Roland Garros and US Open champion will face 24th-ranked Qinwen Zheng for a quarterfinal spot. Zheng defeated seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams 1-6, 6-2, 6-1.



Last week, Swiatek squeezed out a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 victory over Collins in the Montreal quarterfinals.

In this rematch, Swiatek made a statement dive-bombing forehands inside the baseline to break Collins in the opening game.

Collins cranked an ace down the middle to save a break point in the opening game then crashed her third ace of the game to erase a third break point.

A stubborn Swiatek converted her fourth break point to earn the opening break.

Backing Collins off the baseline with deep twisting topspin forehands, Swiatek broke again at 30 for a 3-0 lead.

Though Collins broke back in the fourth game, Swiatek stormed through 12 of the next 16 points to wrap up the opening set.

Torching heavy forehands, Swiatek won 12 of the first 14 points of the second set building a 3-0 lead she never relinquished.

The four-time Grand Slam champion tormented Collins' second serve winning 20 of 24 points played on the American's second serve and converting 7 of 11 break points in a 59-minute sweep. 

It was Swiatek's fourth win over the world No. 34 in five meetings. Swiatek improved to 51-8 overall, including a 25-5 hard-court record, in 2023.



Montreal champion Jessica Pegula showed strength going the distance.

Pegula rallied past Martina Trevisan 6-7(2), 6-2, 6-3 in a match that was briefly interrupted in the final set to treat a fan who fell ill.

Concern for the fan's health altered Pegula's perspective on the third-set pressure and challenged both women's concentration.

I"t's always tough to deal with situations like that. I was just honestly just worried," Pegula said. "I hoped he was okay, because usually someone passes out or it's a quick kind of, oh, they have some water, they fainted, they're okay. But that seemed to be very long.

"Then when they brought out the stretcher, I was, like, Oh, no. Is he okay? You kind of change your perspective as in we are playing this tennis match, and maybe someone's life is maybe not going great.

"It's hard to deal with that. It was a very awkwardly long break. Seemed like it was long enough where you could kind of get cold but not long enough to rewarm up or anything. It was just very awkward."

It was the sixth straight win for Pegula, who defeated Swiatek in a fierce three-set semifinal in Montreal last week en route to the title.

"Actually, physically and mentally I feel good, but conditions are definitely different," Pegula said. "It feels much different than last week. So I think I'm proud I was able to kind of adjust and find my way through it today, because it's definitely playing much different and feels much different, and I just didn't have a lot of time to adapt.

"But sometimes, you know, that's what happens, so I'm glad I was able to figure it out today."

The third-ranked Pegula, who has played 20 three-setters this season, raised her record to 41-13 on the season. Pegula will try to sustain her hard-court roll facing either Elise Mertens or Marie Bouzkova next.