Iga Swiatek Might Have Been an Underdog in Week One of the US Open, but Not Anymore

By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday, September 6, 2022

Flushing Meadows, NY—Iga Swiatek—she of the 37-match winning streak earlier this year—surprised to be in the semifinals at the US Open?

Believe it, it’s true.

The World No.1, who defeated Jessica Pegula 6-3, 7-6(3) on Wednesday night in Arthur Ashe Stadium, says that she really didn’t expect to make a big result in New York, based on the way she played in Toronto and Montreal.

“Looking logically at the last tournaments, I just didn’t know if this one was going to be possible for me to be consistent and to win so many matches in a row,” she told reporters after her win over Pegula.

Swiatek made headlines when she logged a complaint about the fact that the US Open uses different balls for the men and the women, with the women’s ball playing faster and being more difficult to control.

But she has had time to work through those issues, even if she needed several racquet switches against Pegula, as she tried to find the right tension.

She also said the cooler temperatures helped her.

“I think it helped me a lot. I think also the conditions helped me because it was colder today. The ball wasn’t flying as much.”

Now that she’s back in the groove and feeling the ball, Swiatek could be hard to stop this weekend.

Quite a difference, given where she was in terms of form two weeks ago.

If there was a silver lining to Swiatek’s struggles in the US Open lead up events, it is that it allowed her to back away from the pressure and feel like an underdog again.

“I feel like I’ve been playing better and better every week since the start of this swing,” she said. “It surprised me because after the losses that I had in Toronto and Cincinnati, I just wasn’t expecting to play so well here. It gave me actually a lot because I could be kind of an underdog again, not maybe fully, but just not expect from myself that I’m going to win everything right now.”