French Open: Iga Swiatek overcomes slow start and Qinwen Zheng to breeze into last-8

Iga Swiatek had to battle hard against Qinwen Zheng in their fourth-round clash at the 2022 French Open on Monday, before advancing to the quarter-finals. The world no. 1 dropped the opening set 6-7(5) but finished the match after winning the latter two sets 6-0, 6-2 in two hours and 45 minutes.

In an uncustomary beginning for her, Swiatek had to save a couple of break points in her opening service game of the first set. But once she propped herself on the scoreboard, the match began to take similar tones to her earlier matches where she dominated her opponents by securing early breaks for herself. This time around, too, Swiatek went up 3-0 over Zheng but the latter started to show her mettle and broke back Swiatek in the fifth game. She wasn’t able to consolidate the break back though and lost her serve promptly again in the sixth game. The match remained on serve thereafter and in the 10th game, while trying to serve for the set, Swiatek held three set points but wasn’t able to convert any of these. She also lost her serve for the second time, bringing the set back to parity again. Two games later, with Zheng serving to stay in the set, Swiatek held two more set points but couldn’t make good of either of those. And in the tie-break, Zheng came from 2-5 down to clinch the set and the lead in the match.

The match took a turn at the start of the second set as Zheng underwent treatment on her right thigh. As compared to the first set, her momentum and movement both looked hampered and Swiatek didn’t waste any opportunity to get back in the match, after taking the second set. The deciding set, too, went in Swiatek’s favour as Zheng looked to be a different player than the one who’d started the match.

French Open: Iga Swiatek’s rough trek in round-of-16

In those moments that Zheng played well, she not only tactically outplayed the Pole but also forced the latter to go for broke each time. Zheng attacked Swiatek’s backhand, drawing out the errors from that wing and also came up with calculated drop shots to keep Swiatek second-guessing her tactics. In the first set, only a point separated the two players – Zheng won 53 to Swiatek’s 52. The last two sets, however, saw Swiatek hit 20 winners and 18 unforced errors while the Chinese player had only seven winners and 25 unforced errors. 

This was also Swiatek’s 32nd win on the run, and in the quarters, seeking her 33rd victory, the 20-year-old will play 11th seed Jessica Pegula. The American reached her first quarter-final at Roland Garros with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 comeback win of her own against Irina-Camelia Begu. 

Meanwhile, Veronika Kudermetova and Daria Kasatkina filled the last two quarter-final spots in the top half of the women’s draw at the French Open. The 29th-seeded Kudermetova came a set down to oust the 22nd seed Madison Keys, 1-6, 6-3, 6-1. The 20th seeded Kasatkina knocked out the 28th-seeded Camila Giorgi, 6-2, 6-2 in their pre-quarter-final match. This is Kasatkina’s first quarter-final at a Major since 2018. 

Photo Credit: French Open Twitter