Swiatek comes through tough Raducanu test in compelling Stuttgart quarter-final
The world No 1 defeated the Briton 7-6 (2), 6-3 in a closely fought encounter. She will play Elena Rybakina in the next round
Iga Swiatek competes at the 2024 Stuttgart Open © Zuma / Panoramic
Iga Swiatek came through a testing encounter with Emma Raducanu at the Stuttgart Open, beating the former US Open champion 7-6 (2), 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the tournament for the third straight year.
With the win, Swiatek keeps alive her hopes of winning three consecutive titles in Stuttgart, while she also becomes only the second player this century to win eleven straight matches against former Grand Slam champions without dropping a set.
The world No 1 extends her winning record against Raducanu to 3-0, but this was – by some distance – the closest match they’ve contested.
It was an extended and engrossing contest, with Raducanu pushing Swiatek close throughout the first set and then refusing to fade in the second despite an understandable dip in energy.
The Briton defended her serve admirably throughout, saving eight of the eleven break points she faced, while converting her only break point of the match in the very first game.
Raducanu started brightly, overturning a 40-0 scoreline in Swiatek’s opening service game to break the Pole at the first time of asking.
A lengthy, 14-minute game then followed with Swiatek eventually breaking straight back on her third break point as Raducanu failed to consolidate what would have been a crucial break of serve.
It was a match that exemplified the attritional, drawn-out battles that are typical of clay-court tennis as both players were pulled into frequent, lengthy games.
The rest of the set went on serve, with Raducanu showing great resilience to defend some perilous moments in her service games.
Having navigated her way to a deserved tiebreak, the 2021 US Open champion was then overawed by a burst of aggression and intensity from her opponent, with Swiatek sprinting to a 7-2 victory in the breaker to clinch a 70-minute opening set.
raducanu refuses to fade in the second after an epic opening set
The second stanza was a tale of attack versus defence, as Swiatek laid siege to the Raducanu serve while breezing through most of her own service games.
She broke in the opening game of the second set, but Raducanu valiantly defended her remaining service games with regular moments of deft touch mixed with gritty resilience.
That resistance finally buckled under the immense and relentless pressure of Swiatek’s returning game, as the two-time defending champion earned a second break of the set in the ninth and final game, with Raducanu sending a forehand long after a two-hour-and-three-minute marathon.
“It was a pretty intense match,” Swiatek said in her on-court interview following the win.
“I’m happy that I was able to keep the intensity even though we played tough games for like two hours. It wasn’t easy – a lot of break points that I didn’t convert.
“Still, I’m happy that I could finish it with a better score in the second set than in the first.”
Swiatek was then asked whether there was ever a time when she felt as though no one in the world played better tennis than her.
“In 2022 I felt really great,” was her response.
“I keep having these great tournaments that are really showing me that hard work pays off. Sport overall pays off.
“If you’re going to take care of all these things that have influence on your performance, you’re going to have better results. That’s easy.”
big positives for raducanu as rybakina awaits swiatek in the last four
Raducanu leaves Stuttgart with many positives to take away, having fully backed up her excellent performances for Great Britain in the Billie Jean King Cup last weekend. She has played some of the finest tennis this week since her stunning run to the US Open title three years ago and, most importantly, has stayed fit throughout some gruelling matches – all of which bodes well for the remainder of the clay-court swing.
Swiatek, meanwhile, remains undefeated in Stuttgart as she seeks to win her third straight title in the German city.
However, she will face her toughest test yet as she comes up against fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina in the semi-finals.
With both players fit and in form, which hasn’t always been the case in their most recent meetings, it should make for quite a spectacle.
