{"id":9125,"date":"2024-03-16T01:07:25","date_gmt":"2024-03-16T01:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/?p=9125"},"modified":"2024-03-16T01:07:25","modified_gmt":"2024-03-16T01:07:25","slug":"swiatek-advances-to-the-indian-wells-semifinals-as-wozniacki-retires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/?p=9125","title":{"rendered":"Swiatek advances to the Indian Wells semifinals as Wozniacki retires"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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INDIAN WELLS: World number one Iga Swiatek was off to a flying start when she found herself in the semi-finals of Indian Wells when Caroline Wozniacki pulled out of the quarter-finals with a leg injury. In an interesting match between the current and former number one, the 33-year-old Wozniacki raced to a 4:1 lead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the 22-year-old Swiatek found her range and reeled off six straight games, sinking the first set 6-4 and taking a 1-0 lead in the second before Wozniacki responded as he received treatment for an apparent blister on her right side. leg at the end of the first set. Swiatek, the 2022 Indian Wells champion, booked a semi-final meeting with Ukraine\u2019s Marta Kostyuk, who defeated Russia\u2019s Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 7-5.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of respect to her and I\u2019m sad we had to end like this,\u201d Swiatek said of the sudden end to the clash with Wozniacki. It was the second time they had met, the first in 2019 \u2013 seven months after Swiatek made her WTA main draw debut and five months before Wozniacki retired. Wozniacki, now a mother of two who returned to the circuit last season, has started strongly in her quest for a first win over the reigning No.1 since beating Simona Halep to win the 2018 Australian Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Swiatek, who won the title in Doha last month before a semi-final outing in Dubai, gradually came into her own \u2013 closing the opening set with an ace. \u201cI just wanted to hit the ball cleaner, honestly, because it wasn\u2019t easy,\u201d Swiatek said of her early struggles. \u201cI had a lot of chances, but she puts pressure on the opponents with her defense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You play forehand, backhand, and everywhere. \u201cHe runs a lot and returns everything. So sometimes I made mistakes, you know, I couldn\u2019t finish the rally. \u201cI really wanted to stay patient and calm and try to be more solid. In the second set, I felt I could go for it \u2013 I wanted to influence some things in the second set as well, but I didn\u2019t get the chance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast, Kostyuk started hot and then canceled out Potapova\u2019s comeback bid to reach her first 1000-level semi-final. Kostyuk dealt with blustery conditions to roar the opening set in just 22 minutes. The second set looked set to follow the same pattern as Kostyuk raced to a 3-0 lead before Potapova managed to win the game. She then broke Kostyuk to return him to submission and suddenly Kostyuk found herself in a battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI mean, 6-0, 3-0 is probably the worst score in the world, honestly,\u201d said Kostyuk, who served for the match at 5-3 in the second and was broken. \u201cI played against the wind today, so it was very difficult and Anastasia is a very difficult opponent,\u201d added Kostyuk, who reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time this year at the Australian Open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe always fights, so I tried to stay there until the end. She finally polished it off with a final break of serve and advanced when Potapova put a forehand into the net on her opponent\u2019s second match point. In the other women\u2019s quarter-finals, US Open winner Coco Gauff, seeded third, takes on China\u2019s Yuan Yue, while ninth-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece faces American Emma Navarro. Both Gauff and Sakkari could be tested. The attacking Yuan won her first title in Austin two weeks ago, while Navarro defeated Australian Open champion Arya Sabalenko in the fourth round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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INDIAN WELLS: World number one Iga Swiatek was off to a flying start when she found herself in the semi-finals of Indian Wells when Caroline Wozniacki pulled out of the… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":9126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9125"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9127,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9125\/revisions\/9127"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theasiantelegraph.global\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}