MIAMI – World No. 1 Iga Swiatek played down talks of a “Sunshine Double”, saying she takes nothing for granted after navigating through a “tricky” match to beat the 31st-ranked Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic 6-7 (7-9), 6-4, 6-4 at the Miami Open on March 24.
A day after Swiatek’s closest challenger, Aryna Sabalenka, was knocked out of the tournament, the Pole faced a stern test from Noskova.
The Czech had upset Swiatek in the third round of the Australian Open before the four-time Grand Slam winner gained revenge at Indian Wells. The third meeting in 2024 between the pair was, not surprisingly, a tight affair.
Having worked hard to recover from her opening-set tiebreak loss and taken the match into a deciding frame, Swiatek found herself facing three break points when serving for the match at 5-4.
However, she stepped up her game to win the next five points and celebrated with a fist-pumping gesture to her box.
“It wasn’t easy... it’s been tricky today. There were just many ups and downs,” she said.
“I’m happy that after first set I had better idea on what to do, and I just tried to do that in important moments.
“Sometimes, we have matches like that and we need to figure out how to close them anyway.”
Swiatek, who is looking to become just the second woman to win the “Sunshine Double” of Indian Wells and Miami, will face 14th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the round of 16 on March 25.
Alexandrova went through with a 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 victory over fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
“As you can see, it’s not like we can take everything for granted. You can be in trouble at the early stages of the tournament. No sense to talk about Sunshine Double,” Swiatek said.
Potentially standing in the Pole’s way of a rare coup is world No. 3 Coco Gauff, who sleepwalked through much of her opening set against Oceane Dodin but, when the alarm went off, the US Open champion swept 10 straight games to stun the French lucky loser.
With Gauff piling on the pressure, Dodin began to crumble, racking up nine double faults and 26 unforced errors compared to just seven by her 20-year-old opponent.
“She’s a big hitter. She likes the game on her terms,” the American said. “I was trying my best to get deep in the court and just weather the storm.
“Overall, I feel good so far. I’m trying to improve with each match. Definitely playing a little bit better than I was last week in Indian Wells.”
With the win, Gauff matched her best Miami result and will next face another Frenchwoman in Caroline Garcia, who overcame Naomi Osaka 7-6 (7-4), 7-5.
It was a hard-hitting match with the pair sharing 28 aces and Osaka had to fight to take the first set to a tiebreak, saving three set points.
Garcia secured the tiebreak with a forehand winner, but found herself trailing Osaka 4-2 in the second before breaking back.
With Osaka serving at five-all, Garcia forced two break points, converting the second.
Gauff is expecting a difficult outing against Garcia, saying: “She’s tough. We all know how she plays. Takes the ball super early, plays very aggressive.”
The fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula beat Canada’s Leylah Fernandez 7-5, 6-4 to set up a fourth-round clash with in-form compatriot Emma Navarro.
The rising star of US women’s tennis upset 12th-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 3-6, 6-0.
With her 20th match victory of the season, a record bettered only by Swiatek, world No. 20 Navarro is enjoying her most successful campaign, having won her first WTA title in Hobart in January.
Pegula said the belief that comes from such a run of results will make the 22-year-old a tough opponent.
“That feeling of winning a lot of matches, it’s really tough to beat people like that and, even if you do beat them, it’s never easy,” she said.
“It will be a really good test for me to see where I’m at, considering she is probably one of the hottest players on tour right now.” AFP
