Danger, Swiatek is coming!
And the Polish woman does it at a sprint, like a locomotive, from recital to recital: this Wednesday it is Emma Navarro’s turn to be punished, resolved in 1h 29m: 6-1 and 6-2. The American is creditable, if you take into account what has been happening these days, the previous shocks: one game was scratched by Eva Lys (6-0 and 6-1, in 59 minutes), another by Emma Raducanu (6-1 and 6-0, in 1h 10m) and two Sramkova (6-0 and 6-2, in 1h); Siniakova, another representative of Czech abundance, went further than anyone else (6-3 and 6-4, in 1h 21m). Seems the bad from the movie, but it’s not. Iga Swiatek simply says that she is doing her thing, which at the end of the day is to win and, if possible, the sooner and more forcefully the better. The Pole is advancing without brakes for now and will meet the American Madison Keys in the semifinals (3-6, 6-3 and 6-4 against Elina Svitolina). Let him prepare. Or not?
“On the track you have to be ruthless,” she reasons when asked about the route chosen in Melbourne; that is, until someone says otherwise. Given what we have seen, perhaps Aryna Sabalenka could be the only one who can stop her, and to a certain extent it is surprising. After her positive for trimetazidine (melatonin) was announced at the end of November and the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) considered that the 23-year-old winner of five Grand Slams was accidentally contaminated because I wanted to tone down the jet lagit was suspected that the circumstances could weigh on the tennis player, without also forgetting that in Australia she had not yet managed to cross the barrier of the round of 16.
However, she looks ahead and rides. “You must be ruthless, even though ruthless usually means something negative. But I think it’s important for me to focus on myself and always have the same attitude, regardless of the result. That’s what I base my strength, my consistency and the way I continue doing the good things I do on the court. I may seem ruthless, but that is not my goal; I just want to win more and more games, and this is the effect I have achieved in the last few games; now I have more confidence. “I don’t usually go that far in the Grand Slams, except at Roland Garros,” she said on this Wednesday of cold and merciless wind in tennis, because there she is, hard and without giving up a step, distributing tow, and she also appears there. vehemently the leader of the ATP, another without any regard, Jannik Sinner.
“It has been put into monster mode”, illustrates one of its preparers, Simone Vagnozzi. “I felt something similar to a slap on the face,” describes Alex de Miñaur, defeated 6-3, 6-2 and 6-1; does not give the country aussie with a men’s champion since 1976, then Mark Edmondson. And the Italian says he feels much better, after two days before he suffered dizziness and tremors because he woke up with a bad temper and the heat and heat upset his body. “After the game against Rune I had a blood test and everything is fine,” he reassures. “I’m happy to play good tennis when it matters,” he adds after the move to the venue. He will have a dance with the bomber Ben Shelton, who has previously beaten (6-4, 7-5, 4-6 and 7-6(4) and shines again in the semifinals, after reaching the US Open of 2023.
But back to Swiatek, 10 sets played and as many won. A bullet. The one from Warsaw gives nothing away, which with the 14 games delivered towards the penultimate round is only behind Maria Sharapova (9 in 2013), Monica Seles (12 in 1991) and Steffi Graf (13 in 1989). Graf and Seles won, not like that Mashaeliminated by Na Li. “I push my rivals from the beginning to the end of the games. I focus on myself, no matter what the score is. “That’s my idea,” says number two, who is pursuing number one and to do so she must strike. He progresses with a fist of steel, in his style, relentless again. 14 games, an astonishing number but far from that recorded by the Frenchwoman Mary Pierce at the 1996 Roland Garros: there were only six until landing in the semifinals. In the final episode, a certain Arantxa Sánchez Vicario crossed his path.
