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The second-seeded Polish player routed 28th-seeded Petra Kvitova
of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday in the quarterfinals
of the Miami Open for her 15th consecutive win.
Swiatek won her past two events, in Doha, Qatar, and Indian
Wells, Calif. Now she is through to the semifinals in Miami,
where she will meet 16th-seeded Jessica Pegula. The American
advanced when fifth-seeded Paula Badosa of Spain was forced to
retire due to illness while trailing 4-1 in the first set.
"I want to use the confidence that I built since the beginning
of Doha," Swiatek said. "I think I'm on a roll and I want to use
that. Having that kind of streak got pretty tricky, but I'm
pretty glad that I could play well, that I'm healthy, and that I
can compete against players like Petra. She's a legend."
Swiatek never faced a break point against Kvitova, and she
converted three of her seven break opportunities. While Swiatek
won 67 percent of her second-serve points, Kvitova wound up at
28 percent in that category.
"From the beginning, I knew that I had to keep up with the pace
because she plays really fast," said Swiatek, who will rise to
No. 1 following the retirement of Australia's Ash Barty. "I
wanted to stay low on my legs and the first serve was the key. I
don't know if I had many winners, but I wanted to build up
positive energy from her mistakes. I'm glad that I stayed
focused and I did the tactics from A to Z."
Pegula lost her serve to open her match before taking the next
four games prior to Badosa's retirement.
"I think from her last match I could tell that she probably
wasn't going to be 100 percent by today," Pegula said postmatch.
"I have no idea what happened or how she was feeling or if she
recovered or if it was quick. It's just hard to know in those
situations. It can be kind of awkward. ...
"Sometimes you just never know how someone is going to react
when they get out there, even though you know they are not
feeling well."
Badosa later tweeted, "So sorry I had to retire today. Been
struggling with illness since the last match the other day.
Tried everything to recover but wasn't enough. I'll take some
days to recover well and prepare for clay court season. Thank
you"
The other semifinal match on Thursday will feature 22nd-seeded
Belinda Bencic of Switzerland and Naomi Osaka of Japan.
--Field Level Media
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