Clara Tauson Describes What It Felt like Playing Against Iga Swiatek’s Best Version at Wimbledon

Iga Swiatek beat Clara Tauson in straight sets to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals for the second time in her career.

Clara Tauson Describes What It Felt like Playing Against Iga Swiatek’s Best Version at Wimbledon

Clara Tauson and Iga Swiatek (via X/The Tennis Letter/Jose Morgado)

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Clara Tauson was aiming to reach her first Wimbledon quarter-finals, but she was crushed by a clinical performance from former World No.1 Iga Swiatek. The Pole is now through to her second quarter-finals at Wimbledon. After the match, Tauson confessed that she faced the best version of Swiatek at the tournament.

Swiatek has had a very rough patch this season as she failed to defend any of her titles. Things got worse for the five-time Grand Slam champion when she failed to win any clay title this season, despite being dubbed a “clay queen”. That saw her drop to World No.8 after the conclusion of the Roland Garros.

However, she’s back to the top 5 of the WTA rankings after reaching her first grass-court final at Bad Homburg. She arrived at Wimbledon full of confidence in her game and she has only dropped one set en route to the quarter-finals. She defeated Danielle Collins 6-2, 6-3 to earn her place in the fourth round.

During her round of 16 clash against Tauson, Swiatek began by serving poorly and soon found herself trailing 1-3, but she produced an impressive comeback to win the set. She continued with her rhythm in the second set, and Tauson had no response to the 24-year-old’s stunning display. Swiatek won the Dane 6-4, 6-1 in an hour and 5 minutes.

After the match, Tauson revealed to the press that she felt like a 30-year-old player and that she could barely breathe during the match:

I played against one of the best players in the world, and I didn’t feel well; could barely breathe. It’s very difficult to play against Iga; if you want to defeat her, you have to be at 110% Today, it seemed as if I were 30 years old. I didn’t feel right. Maybe I was a bit nervous at the beginning, but I couldn’t keep up with her legs, and my mind wasn’t there either. The feeling is that it’s impossible to beat her.

Tauson had stunned Elena Rybakina in the third round to reach her first Wimbledon round of 16. But, she was not up to the task against Swiatek, who broke her serve five times and hit 18 winners. Swiatek has now extended her lead in their head-to-head record to 3-0 and will now be aiming for her first semi-final at Wimbledon.

Iga Swiatek reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon for the second time in her career

The last time Iga Swiatek reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon was in 2023. Also, she has won 7 matches on grass this season and the only time she did that was in 2023. The 24-year-old has found her form on grass and is getting closer to breaking her record at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament.

Iga Swiatek (3)
Iga Swiatek (Image via X/Jimmie48 Photography)

After beating Clara Tauson, she revealed that she had to maintain her focus in the match, especially after going down 1-3 in the first set. The eighth seed that she played a solid game to earn the victory:

Even though the beginning was pretty shaky with the double faults, I managed to play well and solid. I’m hoping she’s going to have a good recovery and a fast one. It’s never easy to keep your focus. I know that sometimes when I wasn’t feeling well that I’d just let go of everything and it gives you a boost. I just tried to be ready for everything.

Swiatek will now face Liudmila Samsonova in the quarter-finals of the Wimbledon Championship. The former leads their head-to-head record 5-0 and has won eight consecutive sets against 19th seed. The last time Samsonova won a set against the Pole was at the 2022 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

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