Iga Swiatek continued to build momentum and confidence at the Miami Open as she reached the fourth round with a hard-fought 7-6(2), 6-1 victory against the veteran Belgian Elise Mertens, the 27th seed.
Throughout an extremely tight opening set, Mertens demonstrated her intelligence and resourcefulness as she made life difficult for Swiatek. In the decisive tiebreak, however, Swiatek rose to the occasion and then played a brilliant final set to seal the victory.
“I’m happy that I kept my focus and I knew in the first set my serve wasn’t working perfectly but I’m glad that I was patient enough to work for it,” Swiatek said. “In the second set I felt much better.”
With this victory, Swiatek is the first player in history to reach the round of 16 in 25 consecutive WTA 1000 events since the category was created in 2009, a reflection of her peerless consistency.
After an unsatisfying start to the season, Swiatek is seeking her first title of the season this week in Miami. This is the first time since 2020, the year she won her first career championship at the French Open in October, that she has failed to win a title in the first 10 weeks of the season. Swiatek previously won the Miami Open in 2022, which sealed a historic “Sunshine Double” following her Indian Wells triumph two weeks earlier.
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“I love playing here. I missed already playing here in 2023 so I wanted to enjoy every day here and not take it for granted,” Swiatek said.
“For sure, I’m ready to work hard to stay as long as possible. Today’s match was nice because we had some tight moments as well and I was able to play well through them so I’m pretty proud and looking forward to the next one.”
Meanwhile, despite his frustrating second-round defeat against Jakub Mensik on Saturday, Jack Draper reflected on an intense few weeks of competition after winning his first Masters 1000 title at Indian Wells.
Related: Indian Wells champion Jack Draper dealt reality check by Jakub Mensik
“I think I get a lot of confidence from the last couple of weeks,” Draper said. “Obviously I’m really disappointed with how it’s gone here. To win a Masters 1000, to know I had the level to do that, to beat the players I did, only gives me a lot of motivation and confidence moving forward.
“I’m just looking forward to getting back training, getting back to work. My feet are firmly on the ground and I just gotta keep on moving forward the right way, keep on doing my thing and listening to the people around me and move on.”
