Iga Swiatek’s unbeaten 18-match winning streak on clay comes to an end as she crashes out in the quarterfinals of the Poland Open

Iga Swiatek’s unbeaten 18-match winning streak on clay comes to an end as she crashes out in the quarterfinals of the Poland Open

Iga Swiatek and Caroline Garcia

Iga Swiatek, the world number one, was on a roll with an 18-match winning streak on the clay courts but her winning streak got a disastrous end with her defeat to Caroline Garcia of France in the quarter-finals at the 2022 Poland Open in 1-6,6-1,4-6. She suffered her first loss on the clay court since the quarter-finals at French Open in 2021. She had also ended her 37-match winning streak after the third-round exit at Wimbledon to Alize Cornet in straight sets.

Swiatek, the two-time Grand Slam champion, with both titles on the clay court, looked strong in her form in all her matches leading to the quarter-finals, dropping only eight sets in the process. She defeated both her opponents, Magdalena Frech, in the round of 32 and Gabriela Lee in the second round in straight sets. She was the favorite to win the title and had the home crowd’s full support.

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Iga Swiatek faces her fifth defeat of the year

Iga Swiatek and Caroline Gracia shake hands after the quarterfinals at the Poland Open

Iga Swiatek looked fierce and played amazing baseline shots but her opponent was aggressive on her returns and broke three times in a row to win the first set. She produced some unforced errors in the first set. But she bounced back brilliantly improvising her game plans and won the second set reeling off four games in succession to level the match.

The third set was the decider set and went on serve until Garcia broke her in the eighth game. Swiatek hit back to prevent the French player to serve for the match point. But she again lost her serve again and eventually lost the decider set and eventually putting a stop to her winning streak. Her game was not enough to win her the match as Gracia was the better player for today and became the spoilsport to her winning run. The last encounter of both the players was at the Cincinnati Open in 2019, with Swiatek on the winning side totally opposite of today’s match result.

Swiatek will now put all her efforts to get back to winning ways and will soon start her practice for the North American hard-court swing which starts in August. Her first match of the hard-court swing starts with her participation at the National Banks Open in Toronto which starts on August 8 and thereafter, participating at the US Open 2022.

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