Top seed Iga Swiatek comfortably defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-1 to advance to the fourth round of the US Open Grand Slam tournament.
Competing at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Saturday (31/8) evening or Sunday morning (WIB), the first seed from Poland did not encounter any significant difficulties facing his 33-year-old rival.
Swiatek, who won the 2021 US Open last year, also beat Pavlyuchenkova in Rome in 2023, 6-0, 6-0, in just 67 minutes.
This time, Pavlyuchenkova also looked nervous when she lost serve in her first game. Swiatek responded by consolidating the break to go up 2-0. Then Swiatek survived her opponent’s big serve at 4-3, trailing 0-30 after making unforced errors and a double fault.
However, she managed to recover and the pressure was back on Pavlyuchenkova who trailed 3-5. The veteran showed her net game to stay in the set. However, Swiatek won her next service game to take the set, 6-4.
The second set started with Pavlyuchenkova playing aggressively. She lured Swiatek to the net with a drop shot, then hit the ball straight at her body. Swiatek stared at her coldly.
Read also: Iga Swiatek Passes the US Open’s First Match Smoothly
The world number one, who appeared to remain focused and unfazed by her opponent’s style of play, broke Pavlyuchenkova’s serve for a 2-1 lead, then held serve to extend the lead to 3-1.
Instead, Pavlyuchenkova continued to make errors as she lost her serve again to fall behind 1-4. Swiatek took advantage of the opportunity to win the set, 6-1.
“For sure, she’s a great player,” Swiatek said of her opponent after the match. But she added that, “I just need to focus on myself… especially during the rallies, I focused on what I wanted to do.”
In Monday’s fourth-round match, Swiatek will face 16th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova, who defeated rising American Ashlyn Krueger 6-1, 6-1 yesterday. (M-3)
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