Tennis-Sublime Swiatek sprints to US Open fourth round

By Amy Tennery

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Poland’s world number one Iga Swiatek swatted aside 25th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 6-2 with a near-flawless performance to reach the round of 16 for a fourth straight year at the U.S. Open on Saturday.

The 2022 champion never faced a break and made few mistakes as she marched through the match at Arthur Ashe Stadium, pumping her fist after her opponent sent a return past the baseline on match point. She next plays Liudmila Samsonova.

“I’m happy with the performance, because I felt like, you know, she’s a player that can play really powerful shots, so I wanted to be ready for that and I was,” said Swiatek. “I’m happy that I was in control of the match.”

Pavlyuchenkova helped the three-times Roland Garros winner to the break in the first game with a pair of unforced errors on the final two points and Swiatek served to love in the 10th game.

Swiatek took the momentum into the second set, where she dropped only three of her first-serve points and put up just one unforced error, as the Russian’s firepower began to cool.

The Olympic bronze medallist broke Pavlyuchenkova to love in the third set and prevailed from the baseline to convert on another break point chance in the fifth.

A prematch meeting with Serena Williams offered a boost, as the 23-times major winner returned to Flushing Meadows on Saturday for the first time since she bid farewell to the sport two years ago and met Swiatek in the players’ gym.

Swiatek shot down reporters’ suggestions that the interaction – which occurred well before the start of the match in prime time – was a distraction.

“She approached me, like, at 4:00, you know, today. It was before my warmup,” she said. “I would say it more inspired me and it give me, like, a positive kick, so it was nice.”

(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Michael Perry)