World No. 1 Iga Swiatek comes from behind to defeat Jule Niemeier, advancing to US Open quarterfinals after a first set tiebreaker victory.
There are few, if any, times that a tennis player will come from way off the pace when they have set the stage for a comeback.
But Iga Swiatek did that with resolute concentration and power in the second set against Jule Niemeier.
It was a story about a comeback from the beginning, the way it played out in the third and fourth sets.
In the fifth set, however, there became the first time Iga Swiatek lost a third-set tiebreaker to the player who she lost to in the first round. The comeback, though, was an excellent one.
Swiatek had played a tight opening set against Juhana Olsberg, and when she took a second-set lead, the world No. 1 took a deep breath and got on with the job. It was the way she had responded to her own early loss, the way she moved on.
With a new ball, she began to find more answers, using her sharpness and accuracy to win numerous breaks. She also got a big break on serve in the second set, and in no other category did she lose any points in the second to third sets.
And then, in the third, she lost the first tiebreaker of the match.
‘A new ball was a good thing to try to change things, but I didn’t feel like I was winning those points and I was losing to those points,’ Swiatek said. ‘I’m not going to change too much, I’ll go back to what I have. I have a new serve now, hopefully that will help me a lot. Now I know how to be more confident.’
Says Jule Niemeier, ‘We tried to create opportunities again and try to come back to the first set, it wasn’t a perfect week