World No. 1 Iga Swiatek was glad with the way she responded after falling down by a set to Aryna Sabalenka in the US Open.
On Thursday night in New York, Swiatek recovered from a set down to beat sixth-seeded Sabalenka 3-6 6-1 6-4.
“I felt a huge difference between the first set and the last two,” Swiatek said after her comeback win, per the WTA website. “I’m pretty happy that I got my level of energy up a little bit. Aryna made it difficult today, for sure. I felt like she was serving pretty solid. It was hard to come back in the third, but I’m pretty happy that I did.”
Swiatek: I just went all in after the first set
Swiatek struggled mightily on her serve in the first set as Sabalenka broke the Pole three times to win the opener.
After losing the first set, Swiatek raised her game and broke Sabalenka three times to comfortably win the second set and send the match into a decider.
In the fifth set, Sabalenka opened up an early 2-0 lead.
Swiatek managed to get the break back, but Sabalenka broke again and led 4-2 through the first six games of the set.
Two games away from losing the match, Swiatek claimed back-to-back breaks and won four games in a row to complete a comeback win over Sabalenka.
“I feel like Aryna served pretty well today, better than on our other matches,” Swiatek said. “[Losing the first two games of the third set] kind of helped me to get back on ground and realize I still have a lot of expectations even though the second set was pretty dominant. I just went all in, you know. This time it actually gave me a lot, and the balls that I played went in. I’m pretty happy because I feel like we were both kind of sometimes risking, because the pace was really, really high.”
Swiatek plays Ons Jabeur in the US Open final.