By Richard Pagliaro | @TennisNow | Thursday, February 20, 2025
Picture credit score: Robert Prange/Getty
Iga Swiatek was squeezed in desert mud right now.
Seventeen-year-old phenom Mirra Andreeva slashed 10 aces and surged by means of the ultimate 5 video games gorgeous the second-seeded Swiatek 6-3, 6-3 charging into her maiden WTA 1000 semifinal on the Dubai Obligation Free Tennis Championships.
MORE: Andreeva Sweeps Swiatek in Dubai
The loss comes every week after unseeded Jelena Ostapenko stomped Swiatek 6-3, 6-1 within the Doha semifinals snapping her 15-match profitable streak and three-year reign as Doha champion.
Requested to evaluate the toll of taking part in back-to-back WTA 1000 tournaments, Swiatek mentioned the bodily calls for and court docket changes required imply upsets like Andreeva’s or WTA ace chief Clara Tauson toppling world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka yesterday don’t shock her.
The reigning Roland Garros champion advised if the calendar doesn’t change, we are going to see extra upsets on the 1000 degree.
“For certain it is a calendar factor. We’re not going to have the ability to be constant for a few years taking part in week-by-week,” Swiatek informed the media in Dubai. “Additionally it is not like a while in the past that exterior of top-20 gamers, they have been simply getting destroyed extra.
“Now anyone can win these tournaments. It’s like that since a few years.
“However I really feel just like the calendar isn’t serving to. Once more, we have to change continents, we have to change surfaces, we have to change the balls – it is not simple, I am not stunned.”
Working with coach Wim Fissette, Swiatek has tried to make use of her velocity and spins to increase factors and thwart huge hitters. Nonetheless, in back-to-back defeats to Andreeva and Ostapenko, Swiatek was repeatedly burned by the down the road drive and struggled to stall her slide in each matches.
One of many sport’s premier returners, Swiatek was aced 10 instances right now by Andreeva, who received 12 of her final 13 service factors closing out a one hour, 36-minute triumph.
World No. 2 Swiatek, who dropped a dramatic third-set tiebreaker thriller to Madison Keys in final month’s Australian Open semifinals, mentioned she traces right now’s loss to Andreeva to a scarcity of apply between Melbourne Park and the Desert Swing.
“Truthfully, I am not that direct normally, however I might blame this efficiency on the shortage of apply earlier than as a result of I did not have time,” Swiatek informed the media in Dubai. “I am not proud of the outcomes. I really feel like I under-performed.
“I want to speak with my group a bit and plan the following weeks a bit in another way as a result of I have never had a lot time to apply earlier than these tournaments.”
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