By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday November 1, 2022
Iga Swiatek notched her 13th win over top-10 competition with her takedown of Daria Kasatkina on Tuesday at the WTA Finals.
Iga Swiatek continues to dominate elite talent on the WTA Tour, even as the season winds down.
The World No.1 raced past Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 6-3 on Tuesday to move to the top of the standings in the Tracy Austin Group at the WTA Finals.
Swiatek has now won her last 13 matches against Top-10 players, and she has won five on the trot against Kasatkina, winning each of their five 2022 tilts in straight sets.
“I felt like I can really play aggressively,” Swiatek said after improving her record to 65-8 on the season. “But on the other hand with these balls here, you have to really be careful. So I have to balance it – I think I did pretty well at the beginning. So then it gave me confidence for the rest of the match. I'm happy that we got used to the conditions pretty quickly.”
Swiatek never looked bothered by Kasatkina as she dominated the forecourt and pushed the Russian back behind the baseline. She did not surrender a single break of serve, saving all three break points she faced, and cranked 24 winners to just five for Kasatkina.
“I think I started pretty well and that gave me a lot of confidence,” she said. “So I went to play aggressively but on the other hand, you have to be careful and really patient against Dasha so yeah, I wanted to play in a solid way but with pressure on my opponent and I did pretty well.”
Tracy Austin Group Standings After Tuesday's Play
Garcia Powers Past Gauff
Coming in a close second in the standings after Day 2 is France’s Caroline Garcia. The resurgent 29-year-old ruthlessly dispatched Gauff for the second time in two months, 6-4, 6-3.
Garcia, who parted ways with her coach Bertrand Perret just prior to the tournament, didn’t show any signs of being disrupted by the situation within her camp. She was assertive and executed well at the net, winning 14 of 21 points at the net.
Garcia had four game points in the opening game of the match but was still broken. She said she was pleased with the way she didn't stress.
"The most important thing today was really that I stayed really positive, really focused in the present moments," she said. "I had my opportunity to win my first game. I got broken. I was like, ‘Whoa, it's not good.’
Garcia levelled up immediately in the next game then took the set with a break in the tenth game.
"I was really calm, really positive and I was able to come back right away and got my opportunity at 5-4, and then I broke her very early," she said, adding some praise for the 18-year-old.
“She's a great player, a great champion already. She's starting to be more aggressive, like going more to the net and you always have to find solutions. It's never over against Coco.”
In the second set Gauff broke back for 2-3 but dropped her next service game and never recovered.
Garcia was ranked 74 at this time last year but she has been a revelation on tour in 2022, changing her tactics and playing an extremely aggressive brand of tennis that takes the racquet out of her opponent’s hands.
She improves to 40-19 on the season, with three titles – Cincinnati, Warsaw, Bad Homburg – to her name.
She is making her second appearance at the WTA Finals, and first since 2017. Gauff, the youngest player to play both singles and doubles at the Finals since 1999, is making her debut in both disciplines.