NEW YORK. – World No. 1 Iga Swiatek overcame a shaky serving performance to beat American Jessica Pegula 6-3, 7-6(4) on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila) and reach the semifinals of the US Open for the first time.
The top-seeded French Open champion dropped her racket and pumped her fist after the win, which guaranteed that she will remain the world’s top player when the tournament ends.
“I wasn’t expecting this at the beginning of the tournament,” Swiatek said in an on-court interview.
“I’m really working hard and trying to keep my expectations low. Today was such a tough match and I think the level was great, so I’m pretty happy that I handled it.”
In the other match, In-form Aryna Sabalenka swatted aside Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 7-6(4) to reach her second straight semifinal.
The Belarusian underestimated her opponent in their two meetings last year, when Pliskova defeated her in the Wimbledon and Montreal semifinals, but she was in dominant form in New York as she fired down seven aces and never dropped serve.
“Always tough matches against Karolina,” said Sabalenka. “The first set was really high level for me and (I) put a lot of pressure on her.”
Nothing went right for 2016 finalist Pliskova during the first set as she racked up 15 unforced errors and five double faults in 28 minutes.
But the Czech’s form improved considerably in the second set as she fended off the only break point, she faced in the eighth game.
Sabalenka kept her cool in the tiebreak and raised her arms in triumph after sealing victory with a forehand winner on her second match point.
“In the second set, I knew she will kind of trying to come back and she will do better. I just tried to hold my serve and try to put her under pressure on her serve,” she told reporters.
Despite the victory the Pole is still trying to regain her dominant form from earlier in the year when she went on a 37-match winning streak.
The 21-year-old twice failed to serve out the match in the second set and was broken six times by the eighth-seeded Pegula, who saw her own serve broken seven times.
“I knew even though I’m breaking her that it’s not like in men’s matches where they are going to finish with their serve,” said Swiatek.
“I know that. So, I was trying to push her back but she’s really good at receiving so she put pressure on me, which is why it ended up in a tiebreaker.” — Reuters
