SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER!
 
 
Facebook Social Button Twitter Social Button Follow Us on InstagramYouTube Social Button
NewsScoresRankingsLucky Letcord PodcastShopPro GearPickleballGear Sale


By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday March 13, 2023

 
Iga Swiatek

Iga Swiatek was tested early and often by Bianca Andreescu, and passed with flying colors on Monday at Indian Wells.

Photo Source: BNP Paribas Open

From first ball it was apparent that Bianca Andreescu was dead set on being a disruptive thorn in the side of top-seeded Iga Swiatek on Monday night.

Tennis Express

The Canadian, a 2019 breakout champion in the California desert, was switched on, hitting the fuzz off the ball, changing the rhythm of the rallies and looking primed to push Swiatek to the brink.

Not so fast.

World No.1 Swiatek hasn’t faced a lot of pressure in 2023, with many of her matches ending in lopsided scorelines, but she answered the bell on a blustery evening to end Andreescu’s hopes, 6-3, 7-6(1).

"I think the thing that she's doing differently than other players is the way she changes the rhythm with those pretty annoying high balls," Swiatek told reporters with a smile. She added: "it seems like you can be aggressive playing against her, but on the other hand, she's really good at defense and she's playing the slices that are tricky sometimes. You have to be ready for that."

Swiatek sets a round of 16 clash with another former Grand Slam champion, 2021 US Open champion Emma Raducanu, on Tuesday at Indian Wells.

Raducanu took out Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia for her biggest win since her epic US Open run in 2023, 6-1, 2-6, 6-4. The 20-year-old has been playing at an extremely high level in California, and hopes to keep it up against Swiatek when the pair meet for the second time.

The pair met in Stuttgart in 2022, with Swiatek winning 6-4 6-4.

"Honestly, like every day is different. Stuttgart match was like almost a year ago. So long time ago," Swiatek said.

Afterwards in her post match press conference, Andreescu said she felt she played well, and added that Swiatek was simply too good on the evening.

Her assessment was spot on. The pair played some brilliant points, and Andreescu had break leads over the defending champion in both sets. In the first set her break lead was negated right away as Swiatek answered the challenge in the second game with a break back.

Swiatek stretched her lead from 2-2 to 5-2 and claimed the opening set, 6-3.

It could have been a time for Andreescu to hang her head but she kept fighting in the second set. From 2-0 down she impressively reeled off four games on the trot and had a pair of game points while serving at 4-2.

That was Swiatek’s cue to storm back and avoid losing the set. She won four straight points to break for 3-4 and eventually pulled away, winning seven of eight points in a lopsided tiebreaker to book her eighth consecutive win at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

"I'm glad that I the chance to play under pressure a little bit more, and see how I am going to cope with that," Swiatek told the crowd after the match, adding that she was proud of the way she raised her level in the tiebreak.

"I think my level of focus went up a little bit," she said. "I was trying to do that throughout the whole match, but for sure in the tiebreaker I felt like I'm the most focused and composed and really mentally there to finish in a solid way."

The Pole has now won 12 consecutive sets at Indian Wells. Eight more and she’ll own the honor of being the first woman to successfully defend the women’s singles title at the BNP Paribas Open since Martina Navratilova in 1991.

If it happens it would be a very “Iga” accomplishment, and another feather in the cap of a juggernaut whose reign over the WTA Tour appears nowhere near a conclusion.

 

Latest News