New York (AFP) – World number one Iga Swiatek launched her bid for a second Grand Slam title of 2024 with a 6-4, 7-6 (8/6) victory over determined lucky loser Kamilla Rakhimova at the US Open on Tuesday. Broken as she served for the match, Swiatek trailed 6-3 in the second-set tiebreaker, saving three set points as she won the last five to close out the match against her 104th-ranked opponent.
“Well, I’m happy that I’m through to the second round, because, you know, first rounds are never easy,” Swiatek said. “But for sure I want to improve some things and adjust a little bit so I’ll make less mistakes.”
Swiatek, the 2022 US Open champion, candidly revealed she carried “too much baggage” in her New York title defence last year. She looked anything but weighed down, however, as she raced to a 4-0 lead. Rakhimova, one day shy of her 23rd birthday, then won three straight games, but her spirited fightback was hindered by some untimely double faults, and Swiatek responded.
“She’s a solid player,” Swiatek said. “She’s not playing too fast, which kind of makes you want to speed up, but you can’t do that in these conditions sometimes because it’s too risky. I feel like I made a lot of mistakes, because sometimes she was kind of provoking it. But I was mostly focused on myself.”
Unable to convert a set point against the hard-hitting Russian’s serve in the ninth game, Swiatek served out the first set with authority, delivering two aces for triple-set point and sealing it with a backhand winner. After saving a break point in the second game of the second set, Swiatek broke Rakhimova in the third game. But her troubles weren’t over. Serving for the match, she was broken as Rakhimova leveled the second set at 5-5, then piled on the pressure in the tiebreaker.
“At the beginning (I felt) good, but then I got a little bit tight and my opponent used that,” Swiatek said. “I tried to get back to my game.”
“I’ve just been trying to adjust to the courts,” Swiatek added. “I just wanted to feel how it is on Arthur Ashe and I’m sure that day by day I’m going to get more rhythm.”
Four of Swiatek’s five Grand Slam titles have come on the red clay of Roland Garros, including her third straight French Open title this year. Swiatek has also won titles this year at Doha, Indian Wells, Rome, and Madrid — where she saved three championship points to beat Aryna Sabalenka and retain her title. But the 23-year-old from Warsaw may have been feeling the effects of so many matches when she fell to eventual gold medallist Zheng Qinwen in the semi-finals of the Paris Olympics before settling for bronze.
© 2024 AFP
