No. 1 Iga Swiatek rolls past Anastasia Pavlyuchekova to reach fourth round of US Open

Not this time.

Iga Swiatek wouldn’t let last year’s spiral repeat. Instead, she’s back on track.

Back on track as a late-tournament staple, which she had become accustomed to as she won five Grand Slam titles.

Back on track to defending her status as the No. 1 women’s player in the world. Back on track to upholding her own standards.

Poland’s Swiatek toppled Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (No. 27 in the world) in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, in the third round of the U.S. Open on Saturday night at Arthur Ashe Stadium. And it only took Swiatek 1:32 to do it.

“I’m happy with the performance,” Swiatek said. “She has a very powerful first shot, so I wanted to be ready for that and I felt I was. I’m happy I was in control of the match.”

Swiatek, still just 23 years old despite her already illustrious résumé, has been on the wrong end of some of the sport’s biggest upsets recently. And away from the French Open, where she’s won four of her five Grand Slams (including three straight and four of the tournament’s last five editions), she has largely not yet found the same success.

Earlier this month, Swiatek disappointingly only won bronze at the Paris Olympics.

Before that, she was stunningly upset by unseeded Yulia Putintseva in the third round at Wimbledon in July. It was eerily similar to last year, when Swiatek lost to unseeded Alize Cornet, also in the third round of Wimbledon.

Then the following month last year, Swiatek was eliminated from the 2023 U.S. Open — a year after winning the tournament in 2022 — by No. 20 Jelena Ostapenko.

So, Saturday’s match presented a nearly identical situation as the one Swiatek found herself in last year — facing a top-30 opponent the opening weekend of the U.S. Open after an embarrassing result at Wimbledon.

This time, however, Swiatek bounced back.

She will next face No. 16 Liudmila Samsonova in the fourth round.

“Getting to No. 1, it happened suddenly for me,” Swiatek said. “In the beginning, I feel like my opponents didn’t really know what to expect from me and how I play. 2023 was challenging because I had a target on my back and also players learned my game style.”

Swiatek improved to 2-0 against the 33-year-old Pavlyuchenkova.

In addition to Saturday’s win, Swiatek beat Pavlyuchenkova in the Round of 64 of the 2023 Italian Open.

Swiatek broke Pavlyuchenkova to start the match and quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first set.

Pavlyuchenkova pulled within 4-5, but Swiatek subsequently held serve in the 10th game and secured the opening set.

Pavlyuchenkova had a chance to capture momentum in the second set but squandered it.

After winning the opening game, she was up 30-15 in the second game as Swiatek appeared to be tiring.

But Swiatek came back to win the game, and then broke Pavlyuchenkova in the third game — after forcing her into an error amid a highlight-reel rally at the net between the two to open the game — to go up 2-1.

Swiatek didn’t look back, and cruised the rest of the way.

“You always need to learn and try to have more variety and options on the court,” Swiatek said. “If you keep playing the same tennis, people will figure it out and it will be much harder to win.”

Swiatek lost her place as world No. 1 as a result after 75 weeks on top of the sport following last year’s U.S Open loss.

She has since regained that stature, and the woman who briefly usurped her — No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka — still looms on the other side of the bracket.

Swiatek owns an 8-4 record against Sabalenka, including her win in the 2022 U.S. Open semifinals.

Ahead of this year’s U.S. Open, Swiatek spoke openly about letting pressure affect her performance.

It’s an area she said she has worked on — reading and building legos have helped her off the court — and she claimed she feels free of previous “baggage” that kept her from performing at her best.
So far, so good.