Iga Swiatek won her opening round-robin match at the 2022 WTA Finals on Tuesday. The Pole defeated eighth seed Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-3 in an hour and 22 minutes.
Swiatek and Kasatkina who have been played in the Tracy Austin Group put in 71% and 77% of her first serves, respectively. But where Swiatek won 81% of her first-serve points, Kasatkina could win only 54%. Swiatek also won 53% of her second-serve points and 59% points on return on her opponent’s second serve. Swiatek finished the match with almost five times as many winners as Kasatkina – 23 to the latter’s five.
After the win, the world no. 1 and the tournament top seed said, “Well, for sure the start. Because I felt like I can really play aggressively but, on the other hand, with these balls here you have to be really careful. So, I wanted to balance it, and I think I did that pretty well at the beginning. And that gave me confidence for the rest of the match. I’m happy that we got used to the conditions (pretty) quickly.”
WTA Finals: Iga Swiatek vs Caroline Garcia next
In the second round-robin match, Caroline Garcia came through against Coco Gauff. The Frenchwoman needed an hour and 18 minutes to wrap up a 6-4, 6-3 win against the American.
Garcia won 77% of her first-serve points to Gauff’s 54%. The latter, however, fared slightly better when it came to winning second-serve points, scoring 54% to Garcia’s 50%. Garcia converted four of the eight break points she had on Gauff’s serve but conceded her serve twice in the match. Garcia also had eight more winners than Gauff’s 12 for the match.
Following the match, Garcia shared, “It was definitely a good match, pretty solid on my side. I think I stayed really positive at every moment. (Coco) is always impressive to play against, it’s always a lot of intensity and she can do so many things… It was very important for me to stay calm, stay on my game and what I wanted to do, and I think I did it good.”
In the second round-robin match of the Tracy Austin group at the WTA Finals on Thursday, Iga Swiatek will play Caroline Garcia while Coco Gauff will play Daria Kasatkina.
Photo Credit: WTA Insider Twitter