Iga Swiatek becomes first Polish tennis player ever to reach singles quarterfinals at Olympics
She defeated China’s Wang Xiyu in straight sets to extend her clay-court winning streak to 22 matches in a row.
By
John Berkok
Published Jul 30, 2024
Iga Swiatek has become the first Polish tennis player ever, woman or man, to reach the singles quarterfinals of the Olympics.
She achieved the feat with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over China’s Wang Xiyu in the third round of the Paris Olympics on Tuesday night.
Swiatek, who was already the first Polish tennis player ever to even reach the round of 16 in singles at the Olympics, also kept some incredible streaks going with her latest victory over Wang:
She’s now won her last 15 matches in a row against left-handers. It’s been almost two years since she’s lost to a lefty, since Beatriz Haddad Maia got her in Toronto in 2022. Since then she’s 15-0 against them and 30-1 in sets in those matches, only dropping the first set of a 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 win over Haddad Maia in Madrid this year.
She’s now won her last 22 matches in a row on clay. Since falling to Elena Rybakina in Stuttgart in April, she hasn’t lost on this surface, winning Madrid (6-0), Rome (6-0) and Roland Garros (7-0) and now reaching the quarterfinals of the Olympics (3-0).
And finally, she’s now won her last 24 matches in a row at Stade Roland Garros. She won Roland Garros the last three years in a row (21-0), and she’s now into the quarterfinals of the Paris Olympics, which are being held at Stade Roland Garros, too (3-0).
Swiatek has now won 35 of her last 36 matches on the clay courts of Stade Roland Garros.
Swiatek has now won 35 of her last 36 matches on the clay courts of Stade Roland Garros.
© 2024 Daniel Kopatsch
The scoreline may look somewhat routine, but Swiatek’s victory over Wang on Tuesday had some dicey moments in both sets.
In the first set, Swiatek saved break point in both her second and third service games—double break point at 1-all, 15-40 and another one at 2-all, 30-40. But after holding both of those games she opened up a 5-2 lead and served the set out two games later.
In the second set, she was twice up a break early on—at 1-0 and 3-2—but after getting broken back both times, she finally broke one last time for a 5-4 lead and then served the match out.
Awaiting the No. 1-seeded Swiatek in the quarterfinals on Wednesday will be No. 8-seeded Danielle Collins, a 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 winner over Colombia’s Camila Osorio earlier in the day.
Collins famously defeated Swiatek in the semifinals of the 2022 Australian Open, but the Pole has won all five meetings since then, including a 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory in Melbourne this year, in which she dug out of a 4-1, double-break deficit in the third set to prevail.
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