Feeling Healthy Again, Swiatek Ready To Defend Her Stuttgart Crown

Iga Swiatek
Iga Swiatek (photo: Porsche AG)

STUTTGART/WASHINGTON, April 20, 2023 (by Michael Dickens)

Iga Swiatek is feeling healthy again – she’s fully fit and ready to play – and excited to defend her Porsche Tennis Grand Prix title in Stuttgart, the kickoff to the European spring clay season.

“I’m not injured anymore, so that’s the most important thing for me,” the 21-year-old Polish star from Warsaw said earlier this week at her at her “All-Access Hour” with tournament media. “I feel like I used that time in Warsaw well to rest a little bit and to not think about tennis.

“I have still been working out physically a little bit and obviously coming back to practicing step by step. Here I am, and I think I’m ready.”

After reaching the semifinals at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells in early March, Swiatek pulled out of the Miami Open before the start of the WTA 1000 event. She cited a rib injury that caused her great pain and discomfort. Then, after sitting out Poland’s Billie Jean King Cup qualifier last weekend, Swiatek arrived early in Stuttgart and has undergone some intense workouts and practices, which included hitting with several of the tournament’s competitors such as Barbora Krecijkova, Caroline Garcia and Donna Vekic.

“Playing these practices really helped me,” Swiatek said of her pre-tournament practices. “It’s pretty easy to kind of just imagine that you are doing the same stuff on a match. So, I really use that to kind of get my focus 100 percent and kind of imagine what decisions I would make during the match.

“So, I would say, I’m ready. We’ll see on court, but honestly, these practices tell me that I play like I wouldn’t even had a break. So it’s pretty nice.

“I feel like after my experiences with injuries, like when I was younger, 2019, I always came back fast. So, I hope it’s not going to change when I’m going to get older, but I feel like I’m capable to do that.”

A year ago, en route to winning a remarkable 37 straight matches, Swiatek made her Stuttgart debut – and it was a memorable one – that resulted in the Polish star winning her fourth consecutive title. She beat No. 3 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, 6-2, 6-2, to win and cruised off with a brand new Porsche sports car.

Now, Swiatek, who was recently named as one of the 100 most influential people of 2023 by TIME magazine, is ready in sound mind and body to defend her title. On Thursday, playing for the first time in 45 days, she defeated No. 25 Zheng Qinwen of China, 6-1, 6-4, in an hour and 26 minutes to gain a berth in Friday’s quarterfinal round against former Stuttgart champion and current No. 17 Karolina Pliskova. The victory improved Swiatek’s career win-loss record on clay to 45-7.

Although Swiatek hit just five winners, she committed only 12 unforced errors and broke Zheng four times, twice in each set. Except for one break of her serve, which leveled the second set at 4-all, Swiatek controlled the tempo of her match against Zheng. She outpointed her opponent 62-42 and improved her career head-to-head against the reigning WTA Newcomer of the Year to 3-0.

“I think any of us wants to win the tournament,” Swiatek said. “For me, you know, it doesn’t really matter what happened last year, because it’s a totally different story. You know, I treat every tournament really as the one that I want to win.

“For sure, here it’s a special one, because I have really nice memories from last year. It’s the first tournament on clay. So, for sure, I would love to play well, but I also know that I might be a little bit rusty, because coming back from injury, it’s always a little bit like that. So, I’m keeping my expectations low, but for sure I want to play [the] best tennis possible.”

Every win is super important, just ask Pliskova

No. 17 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic, who won the 2018 Stuttgart title, reached her third quarterfinal of the season after defeating No. 23 Donna Vekic of Croatia, 6-2, 5-7 (5), 7-6 (5), in two hours and 20 minutes. The former World No. 1 Pliskova fired 15 aces, hit 43 winners and took advantage of 47 unforced errors committed by Vekic. It was Pliskova’s seventh career victory over the Croatian in 10 meetings.

“I was hoping I wasn’t going to lose two tie-breaks in a row, second set and third set,” Pliskova, 31, said in her on-court interview. “First set I played quite solid – she was missing a lot – then she stepped up her game in the second. My serve in the second set was not the best – it was up and down.

“It was not the best match but in the end I think we were pushing each other to play our best tennis. It was super close at the end. I’m happy with the win.”

Following her title run five years ago in the capital city of southwest Germany’s Baden-Württemberg sate, Pliskova lost in the second round in both 2019 and 2022. She was a quarterfinalist in 2021. A year ago, the Czech star was ranked seventh. Now, she is enjoying an 18-8 start to the 2023 season, and following wins over World No. 9 Maria Sakkari and Vekic, Pliskova will face another tough opponent, top-seeded Iga Swiatek in Friday’s quarterfinal round.

“Here, the draw is always super tough; there is no easy opponent,” Pliskova admitted. “Everybody is Top 30. No matter what round, every win is super important.”

Around the Porsche Arena

• No. 24 Anastasia Potapova of Russia needed just 77 minutes to upset World No. 6 Coco Gauff of the United States, 6-2, 6-3. The win advanced her against No. 4 seed Caroline Garcia of France. It was the second straight win for the young Russian over Gauff after beating her in the third round of the recent Miami Open, and it lifted Potapova into her fourth quarterfinal of the season.

Potapova hit 13 winners, saved all six break points she faced and took advantage of Gauff erratic groundstrokes, which produced 44 unforced errors. She outpointed the American No. 2 77-56 to secure the fourth Top-10 triumph of her career.

• No. 31 Paula Badosa of Spain won her 11th match of the season and reached her second straight quarterfinal on clay with an easy 6-1, 6-2 victory over Spanish qualifier Cristina Bucsa in one hour and 10 minutes on Court 1.

Badosa, who received a wild card to enter Stuttgart, won 79 percent (19 of 24) of her first serve points and broke the 77th-ranked Bucsa five times. On Friday, the former World No. 2 will play the current No. 2 and second seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, who is a two-time Stuttgart semifinalist. Badosa leads their head-to-head 2-1 but Sabalenka defeated Badosa, 7-6 (5), 6-4, in their most recent meeting last year in the Stuttgart semifinals.

Asked it it was a goal of hers to return to No. 2 – maybe, even No. 1 – Badosa said during her press conference: “Right now to be better every day, to enjoy the journey, focus on that, and I think the rankings and results will come after that, to be honest.”

• World No. 5 and fourth seed Caroline Garcia of France ended the run of 71st-ranked German wild card Tatjana Maria Thursday evening, winning 7-6 (5), 6-4, in an hour and 40 minutes. The Frenchwoman struck 40 winners and broke the 35-year-old Maria’s serve four times. Garcia outpointed her opponent 80-74 to advance against No. 24 Anastasia Potapova of Russia.

• No. 14 Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil advanced by retirement over World No. 7 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan after the reigning Wimbledon champion was unable to continue due to back problems. Haddad Maia was ahead 6-3, 3-1 after 65 minutes when the last Thursday match was halted. She will face World No. 4 and third seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia in the quarterfinal round Friday evening.

Thursday’s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix results

Friday’s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix order of play

By the numbers

Karolina Pliskova’s win over Donna Vekic was her 17th career Top-30 win on clay and her 14th against a Croatian opponent.

“Quotable …”

• “I think I proved to myself like even if I wasn’t feeling great, you know, about so many things, my serve, my shots, and playing someone that obviously could finish any time, but believing in coming back and being patient, and like it was kind of a game, you know, like chess. I was finding like the right moment to make a move. I don’t know if they play like this chess or not, but I figured. I don’t play chess at all. What’s the other game we played? Pachisi? I think I really was managing like the return, the serve, finding the key to really get back into my game.”

– World No. 4 Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, describing what was most important about her 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 second-round comeback victory over Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday, in which she was four points from elimination in the second set.

• “Well, I felt like I needed to play more intense game, the same way I played at the beginning of the match. I came back to that.

“Yeah, I’m pretty happy with my result overall. I think that up-and-down kind of vibe that we had on court when I lost like two games or three in a row, it’s because I had a break. I’m very happy I was able to come back, because that’s like the most important thing for me.

“Even though I may be a little bit rusty, I’m happy I can play good tennis.”

– World No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland, after beginning defense of her title with a second-round win over Zheng Qinwen on Thursday.

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