China Open: Swiatek registers stellar comeback win to march into Rd-of-16

Beijing: Six-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek mounted a stellar comeback from a set and two breaks down to defeat 30th-seed Donna Vekic in the round of 32 at the China Open here on Monday.

Swiatek had lost the first set 4-6 and was 2-5 down in the second, staring at the barrel. However, the Pole produced an epic comeback to win the match 4-6, 7-6 (0), 6-2 and storm into the round of 16.

"I was just really pissed," Swiatek told broadcasters following the win, on how she felt after being a set down. "I thought I wasn’t playing bad, but for sure it wasn’t enough. I made some mistakes. I was just angry. I wanted to change something. Clearly it wasn’t working. The beginning of the 2nd set was tough. Later on, I figured it out. I’m really happy about that."

Swiatek had lost her serve in the third game of the match and could not find a way to break Vekic. The eight-seed Pole lost the first set eventually by 4-6. Her hopes of a comeback were in more trouble when she lost her serve twice in the second set to be 2-5 down.

However, she found her top game and broke the Croatian twice to set things at 5-5. Both the players held their serves as the second set went into a tie-break, and Swiatek dominated it to clinch it without dropping a point.

By this time, she had the momentum with her. Both the players began the third set with a break of serve each, but the Pole got a break at 3-2 and did not look back a bit from there. She held her serves and broke Vekic to bag the third set 6-2 and complete an epic comeback win in 2 hours and 40 minutes.

Swiatek will now face Iva Jovic next. Jovic has defeated Kamilla Rakhimova in her round-of-32 clash, 6-1, 7-5. But it would take some doing for the American to stop Swiatek, who is a 2023 champion in Beijing.

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