Iga Swiatek reigned supreme, cruising past arch-rival Zheng Qinwen in the quarter-finals of the ongoing Indian Wells, on Friday. Swiatek won in straight sets, securing a 6-3 6-3 win against Qinwen, who beat her in the semi-finals of last year’s Paris Olympics.
Speaking after the win, Swiatek was asked if her bronze medal in Paris 2024 served as a motivation against her Chinese opponent.
Iga Swiatek completes ‘Olympics’ revenge
In response, the Polish ace said that the defeat served as a reminder and made her more determined to win in the quarter-final.
“Yeah, for sure. For sure it does. I want to show myself and everybody that I can do it, and I already, you know, knew before the Olympics match, I know now, but yeah, it’s not nice to lose to anybody, so for sure you want to have a little, I don’t know, like revenge, but it’s nothing personal. I think every player has that against everybody who they lose before,” she said.
Swiatek is the defending champion at Indian Wells, and after her victory in the quarter-finals, she became the first player in the tournament’s history to reach the semifinals four years in a row. The victory also saw her bag her tenth consecutive win at Indian Wells.
Analysing the match, she added, “At the end, it got pretty windy, which made it super tricky. You need to adjust quickly and it’s not that easy. But I’m happy that I was pushing until the end. … I wanted to be composed and really focused, and I’m glad that I did that.”
Swiatek is the third player to win her first four quarter-finals at the WTA 1000, after Monica Seles and Maria Sharapova. In this campaign, she has only dropped 12 games, the joint-fewest of any player who contested at least four matches to reach that stage, along with Lindsay Davenport (2004), Justine Henin (2006) and Jelena Jankovic (2008).
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