Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka roll into U.S. Open semis

[September 08, 2022] Top-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland advanced to the semifinals of the U.S. Open for the first time, beating No. 8 Jessica Pegula of the United States 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Wednesday night in New York.

Swiatek, 21, is a two-time Grand Slam champion, having won the French Open in 2020 and 2022. Her only other major semifinal appearance came at the Australian Open this year.

She is the first Polish woman to reach the U.S. Open semis. Swiatek is also the first top-ranked player to make the semifinals in New York since Serena Williams in 2016.

Her next opponent will be sixth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, who topped No. 22 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 7-6 (4).

Swiatek struggled to close out Pegula, losing her last three service games, two of them while serving for the match. The returning player won the last six games of the second set, and the trend continued in the tiebreaker when the returning player took the first five points.

Swiatek finally held serve for a 4-2 tiebreaker edge, and she went on to seal the match on her first match point.

"I'm super proud of myself," Swiatek said postmatch. "My goal basically is to be consistent, and playing against the top players in the world, I remember when I was an underdog and any match like that was pretty surreal."

Looking ahead to facing Sabalenka, Swiatek said, "It's gonna be tough, even though I won (the) couple of last matches against her, I know she's in great shape.

"I got to be ready for fast serves for sure and for some heavy hitting, but I feel like I experienced that today as well ... so I'm gonna be ready."

Sabalenka needed just 1 hour, 22 minutes to advance to her second consecutive semifinals appearance at the U.S. Open.

"I just tried to make her work for it," Sabalenka told the crowd. "She played really well -- somehow I was able to handle this level and win this match."
 

The win was Sabalenka's third over the Czech Pliskova in five career meetings.

Sabalenka never faced a break point and laced seven aces in the match -- six in the second set. Sabalenka won 63 percent of her second serves.

"I think I start really well, and the first set was really high level for me and put a lot of pressure on her," Sabalenka said. "First set was really great. 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."

--Field Level Media

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