The French Open women’s tournament, already a spinning roulette wheel of upsets and unlikely success stories, got its first genuine shock on Sunday when unseeded Polish youngster Iga Swiatek upset No. 1 seed Simona Halep 6-1, 6-2 in the fourth round.
Swiatek, 19, won just one game against Halep in the fourth round in Paris last year, losing in just 45 minutes. But she was the dominant force on the red clay on Sunday, dictating play with her whipping forehand and forcing Halep to lunge repeatedly to keep pace.
“Even I am surprised that I can do that,” Swiatek said after closing out the victory and burying her head in a towel in her courtside seat.
The rout was one of the most lopsided defeats of the 29-year-old Halep’s career. She had won 17 straight matches in the disrupted 2020 season and 13 straight on clay. She skipped the United States Open because of concerns about traveling during the coronavirus pandemic, and trained almost exclusively on clay in Romania during the hiatus. She returned after a six-month break to win titles on the surface at the Prague Open and Italian Open.
On Friday, Halep overwhelmed Amanda Anisimova, the American teenager who had upset her at last year’s French Open, dominating her 6-0, 6-1. Halep appeared to be in rare form and headed for another title run, but she ended up losing to another teen at this year’s Roland Garros.
“I’m not going to ruin the whole year just for a match.” Halep said. “Of course it’s not easy to take it, but I’m used to some tough moments in this career. So I will have a chocolate and I will be better tomorrow.”
Less than an hour after Halep’s defeat, Martina Trevisan, an Italian qualifier, opened up the draw even further by upsetting No. 5 seed Kiki Bertens 6-4, 6-4 in the fourth round. Trevisan, ranked 159, already had defeated American teenager Coco Gauff and No. 20 seed Maria Sakkari in the tournament. She finished in style against Bertens, whose best surface is clay, whipping a backhand topspin lob winner that landed on the baseline. Trevisan did not clearly see it strike the clay but she knew she had closed out the victory by the disappointment in Bertens’s face.
While Halep and Swiatek played on Philippe Chatrier Court under a closed roof because of the threat of rain, Trevisan and Bertens played outdoors on Suzanne Lenglen Court in often swirling wind. But Trevisan, playing in her first main draw at the French Open, managed the moment and the conditions.
“I’m living a dream, it’s true,” Trevisan said. “I came here two weeks ago to play my qualifying, but today I’m here in the quarterfinals. So oh my God, I can’t believe it.”
While Halep was upset, Rafael Nadal, the 12-time French Open men’s champion, had no such trouble against 20-year-old qualifier Sebastian Korda of the United States. Nadal won 6-1, 6-1, 6-2 in the sunshine against Korda, the son of former French Open finalist Petr Korda and former WTA Tour player Regina Rajchrtova.
This French Open, postponed from its traditional dates in May and June because of the health crisis, was missing key women’s players from the start. Ashleigh Barty, last year’s singles champion who is still ranked No. 1, is riding out the pandemic at home in Brisbane, Australia, after deciding to skip the remainder of the 2020 season. Naomi Osaka, who won the United States Open last month, withdrew from Roland Garros, explaining that the tight, two-week gap did not leave her enough time to recover from a hamstring injury.
But after eight days of play, the women’s tournament is now missing most of its stars, including Serena Williams, who withdrew with an Achilles’ tendon injury before the second round. Halep’s defeat guarantees that there will be a first-time French Open women’s champion and leaves No. 3 seed Elina Svitolina as the top remaining women’s seed, but Svitolina has yet to reach a Grand Slam singles final. Only four of the 32 seeds remain in the draw: Svitolina, No. 4 Sofia Kenin, No. 7 Petra Kvitova and No. 30 Ons Jabeur.
“At this level nobody surprises anybody anymore because everyone has a big level and it depends on the day,” Halep said.
Not one quarterfinalist from this year’s U.S. Open is still in contention; Kenin and Kvitova both lost in the fourth round in New York. Trevisan, 26, could not have made an equivalent run at the U.S. Open, which did not stage a qualifying tournament this year in order to limit the number of players on site during the pandemic.
Swiatek, who spent the hiatus at home in Poland finishing her high school degree, did make it to New York and lost in the third round to Victoria Azarenka, an eventual finalist. It was a fine showing but not up to her expectations, and she then lost in the first round of the Italian Open on clay to Arantxa Rus.
Swiatek’s father, Tomasz, was an Olympic rower who competed for Poland at the 1988 Summer Games in Seoul. Their last name is regularly mispronounced on the women’s tennis circuit: she politely suggests Shvee-ON-tek.
But she certainly made a name for herself on Sunday. Swiatek, the 2018 Wimbledon junior champion, played high-risk tennis in the cool, heavy conditions, finishing with 30 winners and 20 unforced errors. It was quite a contrast with her lopsided loss to Halep on the same court in 2019. She was the steamroller this time: winning in just an hour and eight minutes.
“Right now I’m more experienced; I can handle the pressure,” she said. “I feel like I’ve grown up to play a match like that and to win it.”
After losing in the 2014 and 2017 French Open finals, Halep won her first major title at the 2018 French Open and followed that up by defeating Williams in brilliant fashion to win Wimbledon in 2019. Though she could certainly have played and adjusted better on Sunday — she often failed to hit her balls deep enough, which let Swiatek tee off — Halep did not play poorly. Above all, the 54th-ranked Swiatek rose to the big occasion: competing with genuine swagger.
“I just think it’s really nice that we have many young players that are coming up and that are not scared,” Swiatek said. “I’m really happy that I’m one of them, and I hope I’m going to continue that way.”
Next up: a most unlikely French Open quarterfinal with Trevisan.
“All the credit to her,” Halep said of Swiatek. “She played unbelievable today, and she was everywhere. She hit all the balls in: very strong, very powerful. It was a little bit cold, and I couldn’t be at my best, but, yeah, she played really well and it was her match today.”
"in" - Google News
October 04, 2020 at 05:06PM
https://ift.tt/33r4kAe
Simona Halep Upset in French Open by Iga Swiatek - The New York Times
"in" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2MLa3Y1
https://ift.tt/2YrnuUx
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Simona Halep Upset in French Open by Iga Swiatek - The New York Times"
Post a Comment