Iga Swiatek shakes off challenging first set, rolls to US Open quarterfinals

At first, Liudmila Samsonova presented a challenge for Iga Swiatek. She held serve four times to start the first set. She blended power and finesse with her serve — even reaching 117 mph — to keep the world No. 1 off-balance.

But then Swiatek took control.

She lost just one more game the rest of the match.

She has reached the pinnacle of the U.S. Open before, winning the singles title in 2022, and with her 6-4, 6-1 win in the Round of 16 on Monday, Swiatek moved one step closer toward winning her sixth Grand Slam and replicating her run in Queens.

“At the beginning we kind of played, you know, serve by serve,” Swiatek said. “But I’m happy that I waited for the right moment and I got my chance on the return game.”

In order to separate from Samsonova, though, Swiatek first needed to force a break. Swiatek compared the early flow of the match — Swiatek holding serve, Samsonova holding serve, that repeating for the first nine games — to the style of men’s tennis, she said on the court following the match.

But then Swiatek won four of five points to go up 5-4. She breezed through all four points and held serve to take the opening set, too.

Swiatek cruised from there, taking the first five games of the second set.

When Samsonova needed to hold serve to stave off a looming match point, she snapped Swiatek’s streak, but Swiatek’s third ace of the night set up a second chance at match point. And when Samsonova’s shot following a soft hit landed out, that was enough.

Last year, this was the juncture of the Open when Swiatek’s bid for an encore ended in an upset.

This was when she fell to No. 20 Jelena Ostapenko, when her one tournament that ended on top of the draw resembled more of a hard-court anomaly when aligned with her other appearances in Queens — a Round of 64 ending, a Round of 32 defeat, and then two that reached the brink of the final eight — and her consistent success on clay.

Swiatek’s return to the ultimate match of the women’s draw will require her to get past No. 6 Jessica Pegula, who is searching for her first trip to a Grand Slam semifinal after building a career on the near-misses.

The pair met on this stage in the 2022 quarterfinals, with Swiatek en route to the title and feeling for the first time that tournament, she recalled Monday, that the ball was “listening to me a little bit more.”

No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka, who made the final at the Open last year, still looms on the other side of the draw, too.

“Against [Pegula], it’s never easy,” Swiatek said. “… For sure she’s in a good rhythm right now.”

But for one night, and for one week, Swiatek figured out a way to successfully navigate everything.