By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday April 20, 2023
The World No.1 dropped just five games against talented Zheng Qinwen in Stuttgart.
Photo Source: TTV
Iga Swiatek is back on her beloved clay, and looking formidable as ever.
The World No.1 began her Stuttgart title defense on Thursday with a comfortable 6-1, 6-4 victory over dangerous Qinwen Zheng to reach the quarterfinals.
Swiatek improves to 45-7 on clay lifetime, and 31-3 since the beginning of 2021.
The Polish juggernaut got the job done in one hour and 26 minutes, and will face former World No.1 Karolina Pliskova in quarterfinal action on Friday.
Having left Indian Wells with an injury to her rib, Swiatek skipped Miami in order to give herself a clean bill of health. Now 100 percent fit, she was pleased to set the tone for her clay season with a stellar performance on Thursday.
"I felt like I needed to be 100 percent focused from the beginning to the end, to think about technique and tactics," Swiatek said afterwards on court. "I'm pretty happy that I'm not rusty and I could perform good tennis, even though I had a break."
Credit Zheng, who had stretched Swiatek to three sets in their two previous meetings, for pushing back in the second. She broke back and leveled up at four-all, but dropped the final two games to fall to 0-3 lifetime against Swiatek.
The 20-year-old Chinese, ranked 25, drops to 6-5 in 11 career clay-court matches.
Earlier on Thursday Pliskova took out Donna Vekic 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-6(5), while Anastasia Potapova took out Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-3.
Potapova will face Caroline Garcia, who defeated Tatjana Maria 7-6(5), 6-4, in the quarterfinals.
Resurgent Paula Badosa was also a winner on Thursday, the Spaniard taking out compatriot Cristina Bucsa 6-1, 6-2 to set a quarterfinal with No.2-seeded Aryna Sabalenka.