Swiatek equals Serena with 27-match winning streak
Rangers, Stars force Game 7s
ROME, May 14, (AP): Not since Serena Williams seven years ago has another woman had such a hot streak.
Top-ranked Iga Swiatek routed Aryna Sabalenka 6-2, 6-1 for her 27th straight win and reached the Italian Open final on Saturday.
Williams won 27 in a row over 2014 and 2015. The all-time longest streak belongs to Martina Navratilova, who put together 74 straight in 1984.
“I’m just constantly surprising myself that I can do better and better,” Swiatek said. “I feel like I actually can believe now that the sky’s the limit. That’s the fun part.”
Aiming to defend her Rome title in Sunday’s final, Swiatek will face another player on a run, Ons Jabeur, who beat Daria Kasatkina 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 for her 11th consecutive victory after lifting the Madrid Open trophy last week.
In the men’s tournament, Stefanos Tsitsipas reached his first Rome final by rallying past Alexander Zverev 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Seeking to win her fifth straight tournament, Swiatek dominated the eighth-ranked Sabalenka with power, consistency and finesse.
While she struggled with her serve at times, Swiatek was able to consistently crush both forehand and backhand winners on the slow, red clay court at the Foro Italico. The 20-yearold Pole also hit a delicate backhand half-volley winner in the final game of the first set.
Swiatek had the same number of winners and unforced errors, 15, while Sabalenka produced just eight winners and had a whopping 31 unforced errors.
“Today I felt like I really understood the clay,” Swiatek said.
The hard-hitting Sabalenka took a medical timeout late in the second set and had her back treated.
When it was over, she waved her arms to urge the crowd to cheer louder for her.
Swiatek, who was a surprise champion at the French Open in 2020 when she was ranked No. 54, will be the favorite to add a second title at Roland Garros when the year’s second Grand Slam starts next weekend.
There’s more to Swiatek’s super season than her winning streak.
With more than half the season still to go, Swiatek has already won as many matches this year (36) as she did in all of 2021.
She also became the seventh player to reach two finals in Rome before turning 21 after Chris Evert, Navratilova, Gabriela Sabatini, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis and Venus Williams.
Jabeur saved a match point late in the third with an inside-out forehand winner that landed on the line. The Tunisian then sealed it on her first match point with a backhand dropshot winner - an appropriate ending for the player who leads the tour in successful drop shots this year with more than 100.
In all, Jabeur hit 47 winners to Kasatkina’s 13.
Tsitsipas has been pushed to three sets in three of his four matches this week, having also overcome local favorite Jannik Sinner in straight sets in the quarterfinals.
Tsitsipas has also played all of his matches in the midday heat.
“The heat hasn’t been easy. But that’s what I prefer,” the Greek player said.
Tsitsipas defended his title at the Monte Carlo Masters last month and is aiming for another big clay-court title before the French Open.
The Italian Open has been played at the picturesque Foro Italico, which includes a court lined by neo-classical statues, since 1935.
“It’s one of the tournaments that has the most history in our sport,” Tsitsipas said. “You can see walking around the site, one of the most beautiful stadiums - the Pietrangeli. So there’s a lot of history playing in these courts and you feel very proud that you’ve made your way here and are able to participate in such a historically rich event.”
WASHINGTON, May 14, (AP): Jonathan Huberdeau couldn’t remember what it was like to be on the smiling side of a handshake line.
The feelings were so strong after he and the Florida Panthers beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 in overtime Friday night to win Game 6 and move on to the second round that Huberdeau wants to replicate it over and over.
“We didn’t know how it felt,” he said. “Now we might as well go all the way.”
That’s a long way off, but getting out of the first round was a strong first step for the Presidents’ Trophy winners who won the franchise’s first playoff series since 1996. Ending that drought at 26 years took bouncing back from the Capitals tying the score with 1:03 left in regulation and getting another big goal from leading scorer Carter Verhaeghe 2:46 into overtime to move on.
Florida will face either the crossstate rival - and back-to-back defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning - or the Toronto Maple Leafs in the next round. They face off in Game 7 of that series Saturday.
“They’re going to be big-time challenges,” interim coach Andrew Brunette said. “It will be a different kind of series.”
This series included the Panthers rallying from a deficit to win the final three games. After Ryan Lomberg tied it in the second period in his return to the lineup, trade-deadline acquisition Claude Giroux evened things up in the third and captain Aleksander Barkov put them ahead before T.J. Oshie’s power-play goal sent the game to OT.
After a league-high 29 comeback victories in the regular season and a dose of adversity in a tougher series than many anticipated, the Panthers were not shaken by the sudden turn of events.
“We were just confident,” Huberdeau said. “We know we can score some goals. Obviously they tied it up, but that’s hockey. That’s how it happened the way we won here the last time, so that was the same thing. Obviously we stuck with it, and that’s the kind of team we are and we showed it.”
Verheaghe’s OT goal was his team-leading sixth of the series and came after he missed the morning skate and was considered a gametime decision. Brunette said Verhaeghe “dug in deep and found a way to get it done.”
That’s true about the entire team. Dogged by the reputation of losing in the playoffs, Florida’s core of Huberdeau, Barkov and top defenseman Aaron Ekblad that had fallen short three previous times finally got to soak in what it’s like to win a
Rangers 5, Penguins 3
In Pittsburgh, Chris Kreider’s long slap shot bounced over Louis Domingue and into the net with 1:28 left and the New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-3 on Friday night to push their thrilling first-round series to a deciding Game 7.
Kreider’s second of the game and fourth of the playoffs sent the series
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back to New York. Andrew Copp added an empty netter for good measure in the waning seconds. Game 7 is Sunday at Madison Square Garden.
Mike Zibanejad had two goals and two assists and Adam Fox had four assists. Igor Shesterkin stopped 31 shots to win at PPG Paints Arena for the first time this series after getting chased by Pittsburgh in Games 3 and 4.
Bryan Rust, Evgeni Malkin and Jeff Carter scored for Pittsburgh. Domingue, who has become a local folk hero while filling in for injured Tristan Jarry and Casey DeSmith, made 33 saves but couldn’t get a handle on Kreider’s shot, which seemed to hit him high then popped up into the air and behind him before rolling into the net.
Pittsburgh played without captain Sidney Crosby, who sat out while dealing with an upper-body injury. His status going forward is uncertain.
Stars 4, Flames 2
In Dallas, Miro Heiskanen scored the go-ahead goal late in the second period for and Dallas recovered after blowing an early two-goal lead to force a deciding Game 7 in their firstround Western Conference series.
Roope Hintz and Michael Raffl also scored for the wild-card Stars, and Tyler Seguin added an empty-netter in the final minute. Jake Oettinger stopped 36 shots.
Mikael Backlund and Michael Stone scored for Calgary, which tied the score 2-2 with 8:01 left in the second. Jacob Markstrom also had 36 saves.
The series wraps up Sunday night in Calgary, where the Flames last hosted a Game 7 in 2006 and lost their firstround series to Anaheim.