It was unclear whether the fans thought it was she who had snubbed her opponent and Azarenka gave a long, lingering stare before banging her fists together as she walked off. It was the first clash between a Russian or Belarusian player and a Ukrainian at Wimbledon since the lifting of last year's ban on competitors from the aggressor nations.
Svitolina had been booed at the French Open for refusing to shake hands with Russian and Belarusian opponents but here it was Azarenka, who put her hand up to acknowledge Svitolina before leaving the court, that received loud jeers. Since 2015, the year Elina Svitolina reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final, the Ukrainian is one of the four players to appear in 10+ quarter-finals in such events along with Serena Williams (16), Simona Halep (13) and Karolina Pliskova (11). More drama was to follow with Swiatek going 0-30 down when serving for the match, but she responded in style with two passing forehand winners sealing her spot in the last-eight. However after Swiatek dug deep to hold again, the resistance was finally broken with back-to-back double faults by the 14th seed. If Swiatek thought she had worn down Bencic's armour, she initially appeared to be wrong with the Swiss right-hander able to force another break point chance early in the third. There remained a steel about Tokyo 2020 champion Bencic, who broke back to make it 3-3 and then had victory within her grasp when 15-40 up at 6-5.įaced with losing at Wimbledon in the fourth round again, Swiatek came out swinging, producing equally brilliant forehand and backhand winners before repeating the trick to take the second tie-break.
Swiatek left the court and returned determined to avoid another exit before the second week in England, with a sweet forehand return earning a break after a nine-minute opening game. Iga Swiatek is the youngest player to reach the women's singles quarter-finals in all four Grand Slam events since Svetlana Kuznetsova.
0 kommentar(er)
