No. 1 Swiatek rolls into semis; Cilic through in 5
Iga Swiatek benefited from the chair umpire’s no-call on a double bounce that gave her a key first-set service break during a match-altering five-game run and the French Open’s No. 1 seed moved into the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Jessica Pegula on Wednesday.
Swiatek extended her winning streak to 33 matches, the longest on tour since Serena Williams won 34 in a row in 2013.
Swiatek will face No. 20 Daria Kasatkina in one women’s semifinal Thursday, when the other will be No. 18 Coco Gauff, an 18-yearold American, against unseeded Martina Trevisan, a 28-year-old from Italy.
Only Swiatek has previously participated in the final four at a major tournament, losing in the semifinals at the Australian Open in January and taking the title at the 2020 French Open when she was ranked outside the top 50.
“This year it’s a little bit different, because I’m not an underdog,” she said, “and everything
has changed, honestly.”
Kasatkina beat No. 29 Veronika Kudermetova 6-4, 7-6 (5) in a match between two Russian players who will not be allowed to compete at Wimbledon later this month because of that country’s invasion of Ukraine.
Theirs was a mistake-filled quarterfinal, with the players combining for 75 unforced errors, 50 by Kudermetova. That allowed Kasatkina to win despite coming up with just 16 winners over the course of 165 points.
“It was a roller coaster,” said
Kasatkina, who hadn’t reached a major quarterfinal in four years. “Just happy with the way I stayed on the court and didn’t put myself in the situation where I was disappointed and stuff. So really happy with this mental part.”
In the men’s quarterfinals Wednesday, 2014 U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic got to the French Open semifinals for the first time by hitting 33 aces to defeat No. 7 Andrey Rublev 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (10-2) in 4 hours, 10 minutes.
The 20th-seeded Cilic, a 33-year-old from Croatia who compiled 88 total winners to Rublev’s 35, is one of five active men to have made it to at least the semifinals at each of the four major tournaments. He’ll face No. 8 Casper Ruud or 19-year-old Holger Rune on Friday for a berth in the final.
A day after her 21st birthday, Swiatek was not at her dominant best against the 11th-seeded Pegula, a 28-year-old from New York whose parents own the NFL’s Buffalo Bills and NHL’s Buffalo Sabres.
“Getting old, but still fresh,” Swiatek wrote with a silver marker on the lens of a courtside
TV camera.
She was more pleased with herself than after her fourth-round win, in which she ceded a set for the first time in more than a month and felt “kind of like a cold shower.”
“It really helped me the last match, to kind of remind me what I have to do to make my tennis more efficient,” Swiatek said.
As usual for most of this season, Swiatek was good enough to end up on the right side of the scoreline. She has not lost a match since February and claimed the title at each of her past five tournaments.
Swiatek rose atop the WTA rankings in March after the woman who was No. 1, Ash Barty, retired at age 25. Rather than being derailed by the sudden switch in status, Swiatek has flourished, going 16-0 since rising from No. 2.
On a sunny afternoon at Court Philippe Chatrier, with the temperature above 70 degrees Fahrenheit (20 Celsius), Swiatek’s start was so-so for the second match in a row, although she did wind up with nearly twice as many winners as Pegula, 30 to 16.