Iga Świątek made no secret of the fact that she ‘slept through’ the start of her third-round Grand Slam match at the French Open, but she was happy to be out of trouble. ‘It’s also good to play matches like this because they make you sane,’ the Polish tennis player assessed after her victory against Anett Kontavieit.
In the first two rounds of this year’s edition Świątek, seeded eight, gave up just seven games to her opponents. Saturday’s match against Estonian Anett Kontaveit started with a dropped serve, and she was down at 2:4 in the first set before she got down to business. In the end, the Pole won the opening set in a tie-break and did not lose a single game in the second.
‘I came into this match late. In general, the first set was a game-by-game battle. Had I not been broken in the opening set, I think the outcome would have been different. It taught me a lesson. I tried not to let it get to the point where she was the only one dominating, as it was for the first two games. I was concentrating on breaking her (…) I’m glad I was regular and came out on top in the tie-break pretty easily.’
– analysed Iga Świątek after her victory with Kontaveit.
Iga Świątek advanced to the 1/8 final of Roland Garros WATCH THE VIDEO!!!
‘Today it was close. I’m glad I kept myself in the game. I try to approach every game the same way I did last season and I’m happy that I’m succeeding. Many tennis players have a problem with this when they defend a Grand Slam title.’
Iga admitted that the duel with Kontaveit is a valuable warning signal for her.
‘Certainly, if you win too easily, sometimes thoughts like “since I’m leading 3:0, I’m going to win this game easily” can come up and you take it for granted. It’s natural. I try not to do that, though. It’s also good to play matches like this because they make you sane and you have to be careful with every point in every game. I’m happy that I’m able to play really good decisive actions. That’s the most important thing to me.’
Iga Świątek will fight on Monday against the Ukrainian Marta Kostiuk to advance to the singles quarterfinals. On Sunday, she will play in the 1/8th doubles final.