When Iga Swiatek, the No. 1 women’s player in the world, took the first set against Jelena Ostapenko on Sunday night, it seemed like business as usual.
Swiatek, a four-time Grand Slam champion at 22, after all, was the reigning U.S. Open champion, and going into her match against Ostapenko, she had not dropped a set at this tournament.
But while Swiatek is often able to cruise through matches, Ostapenko has been a bit of a thorn in her side. Ostapenko has been undefeated against Swiatek, and extended that to four wins with a victory on Sunday night, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.
In the second set, the match shifted. Ostapenko began to take control. When Ostapenko evened things up at a set apiece, Swiatek seemed to be out of her comfort zone.
As she struggled, Swiatek looked up at her box, appearing to ask for some sort of advice to contend with Ostapenko’s surge. Her coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, didn’t seem to have an answer for her, and Swiatek sarcastically clapped toward her box, as if to convey thank you for nothing.
Throughout the third set, Ostapenko was unrelenting. “I had to be aggressive because that’s what she doesn’t really like,” Ostapenko said in an on-court interview after the match. “I was just fighting until the very last point.”
Ostapenko will now face Coco Gauff,…
