– Angelique Kerber 4: 6, 6: 2, 6: 3 and Polka is already in the quarter-finals of the tournament in Indian Wells! Our tennis star turned the game again. In California itself, Iga did it as many times as in the entire 2021 year. Świątek becomes a specialist in getting out of trouble.
Angelique Kerber is a three-time Grand Slam champion, former leader of the WTA ranking and still the world’s top tennis player – currently ranked 16th. Iga and Angie, ranked 4th, played together for the first time. So far they have trained together many times.
Swiatek was the favorite, but the game started badly. After 27 unforced mistakes, she lost the first set 4: 6. Then, as was her habit, she took a short break and again – as in previous matches in Indian Wells – she came back changed.
Iga Świątek plays better when the pressure is greater
In the second set, Iga withstood the festival of mutual breakthroughs and in its second part, we can now delete the word “mutual”. Swiatek lost her application twice, but Kerber – four. Already in this game, Iga made a mistake rarely – eight times. And in the last one, she made only five unforced mistakes. she played more or less the same throughout the game. On the other hand, Świątek turned up again – as in previous matches in – and, having no margin for error after losing a set, it presented a much higher level.
Playing good tennis under pressure from the result is becoming the hallmark of our champion Roland Garros this year. In California alone, Iga played the third game and had a great comeback for the third time in a row. She had lost her first sets earlier with Anhelina Kalinina and Clara Tauson. In 2022, Iga has already turned five matches. Earlier, she impressed with this at the Australian Open, where in three sets she defeated first Sorana Cirstea in the fourth round and then Kalia Kanepi in the quarter-finals.
Two hours better than one
Throughout the previous year, Iga only won three matches, in which she lost the first sets. She did it with Kaja Juvan in Melbourne, with Barbara Krejcikova in Rome and with Fiona Ferro at the US Open. At that time, experts and commentators unanimously emphasized that Iga had to learn how to overcome difficult situations and that each such victory was especially valuable.
Today we can see how much such wins give Iga. Of course, it’s great when he wins in his expressive style and only needs a little over an hour to do so. But for Iga’s head, for her constantly built self-confidence, the victories after more than two hours of hard fight are invaluable. Mainly – as you can see from the course of these meetings and the numbers describing them – fighting with myself.
Source: Sport
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
