Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
Former US Open champion Iga Swiatek lost her cool in the press conference after her stunning fourth-round defeat to Qinwen Zheng on Monday. The Polish star had led 5-0 in the opening set at Arthur Ashe Stadium, only to suffer an extraordinary collapse and go down 5-7, 3-6 to the Chinese qualifier.
The frustration followed Swiatek into the press room. Asked how she would process surrendering such a commanding lead and use it as a learning experience, the Pole appeared visibly agitated before snapping at the journalist.
advertisement
Here’s the exchange:
Journalist: More specifically about the first set, having been up 5 love and bouncing back from that… how do you think you’ll go about internalizing that and growing from it?”
Iga Swiatek: “It’s just one match, like… try to play the same way as usual. What do you mean? Do you think it’s something crazy? You can lose a set from any score, nothing special about that. Just that’s what happened and that’s it.”
SWIATEK CRASHES IN US OPEN
Swiatek had looked firmly in control when she raced into a 5-0 lead, but Zheng slowly found her rhythm and began turning the match on its head. The Chinese qualifier saved three set points before winning seven games in a row to steal the opening set.
It was the second consecutive match in which Zheng had recovered from 5-0 down at the US Open. She had produced an almost identical escape in the deciding set against Madison Keys in the previous round.
This time, however, the comeback came against a six-time Grand Slam champion who had dominated their previous meetings. Swiatek had won seven of their eight encounters before Monday.
Zheng refused to be overawed by that record.
The Olympic champion kept forcing Swiatek into difficult exchanges and carried her momentum into the second set. Swiatek took a medical timeout after the third game, with a physio attending to her left thigh, but returned to the court and continued playing.
Zheng kept applying pressure and eventually broke in the seventh game with a backhand winner down the line. She then held her nerve while serving for the match, converting her fourth match point to complete one of the biggest wins of her career.
Swiatek was left to rue a match that had seemed to be firmly in her control.
“It’s tough to get over that when it happens. And maybe I could have played more safe or something, but I also didn’t feel like I had space with Qinwen to do that,” Swiatek said.
“If I would be more solid than her, I would win this game, but I wasn’t solid and I was missing too much.”
ZHENG’S COMEBACK
For Zheng, the victory completes another remarkable chapter in her comeback.
The 2024 Olympic champion had seen her progress interrupted by a chronic right elbow problem and underwent surgery last year. She came through qualifying in New York and has now reached the quarter-finals after knocking out Madison Keys and Swiatek in successive rounds.
“I didn’t expect that today, but somehow it’s just happening again,” Zheng said after her latest comeback.
She will now face second seed Elena Rybakina for a place in the semi-finals.
For Swiatek, meanwhile, the defeat brings another Grand Slam campaign to an early end. But it was her extraordinary reversal of fortune from 5-0 up, and her fiery response when asked about it afterwards, that became the defining moments of her night in New York.
– Ends
SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
