When Iga Swiatek, the No. 1 seed on the U.S. Open, took the primary set towards Jelena Ostapenko on Sunday night time, it appeared like enterprise as typical.
Swiatek, a four-time Grand Slam champion at 22, in any case, was the reigning U.S. Open champion, and going into her match towards Ostapenko, she had not dropped a set at this event.
However whereas Swiatek is usually capable of cruise by means of matches, Ostapenko has been a little bit of a thorn in her facet. Ostapenko has been undefeated towards Swiatek, and prolonged that to 4 wins with a victory on Sunday night time, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Within the second set, the match shifted. Ostapenko started to take management. When Ostapenko evened issues up at a set apiece, Swiatek gave the impression to be out of her consolation zone.
As she struggled, Swiatek regarded up at her field, showing to ask for some kind of recommendation to cope with Ostapenko’s surge. Her coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski, didn’t appear to have a solution for her, and Swiatek sarcastically clapped towards her field, as if to convey thanks for nothing.
“I don’t actually know what occurred with my sport,” Swiatek mentioned after the match. “I felt no management abruptly.”
All through the third set, Ostapenko was unrelenting. “I needed to be aggressive as a result of that’s what she doesn’t actually like,” Ostapenko mentioned in an on-court interview after the match. “I used to be simply preventing till the final level.”
With the loss, Swiatek will descend within the rankings after 75 weeks as the ladies’s No. 1, paving the way in which for Aryna Sabalenka, this 12 months’s Australian Open champion, to ascend to the highest.
“It was fairly exhausting,” Swiatek mentioned on holding the No. 1 spot for thus lengthy. “I nonetheless must do all these things that my workforce and all these nice gamers like Roger or Novak or Rafa are telling about: you simply must deal with the tournaments, not the rankings.”
Ostapenko will now face Coco Gauff, the American seeded No. 6, in a quarterfinal on Tuesday. Gauff additionally lately found out defeat Swiatek after beating her within the semifinals of the Western and Southern Open in Ohio final month.
Ostapenko and Gauff have confronted one another twice, most lately on the Australian Open, the place Ostapenko defeated Gauff in straight units within the spherical of 16. Gauff received their earlier match in 2019.
“It was a troublesome match,” Ostapenko mentioned about her Australian Open match towards Gauff earlier this 12 months. “In fact, it’s going be one other robust match. I don’t count on any straightforward matches right here in a Grand Slam, so I’m prepared for one more battle.”
However now, with out Swiatek in the way in which, the U.S. Open girls’s singles draw opens up rather more extensively. All of the sudden, the trail to the ultimate has change into simpler for Ostapenko, Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Ons Jabeur and Sabalenka.
Gauff is prepared for Ostapenko, whom she described on Sunday as a tough hitter forward of Ostapenko’s victory.
“With Jelena, she’s a striker, ball-striker. I misplaced to her in Australian Open this 12 months. She’s sizzling or chilly, to be trustworthy,” Gauff mentioned.
The winner of Ostapenko and Gauff will tackle the winner of a quarterfinal match between Sorana Cirstea and Karolina Muchova within the semifinals. Cirstea, of Romania, reached the quarterfinals after upsetting Belinda Bencic, the fifteenth seed, on Sunday. Muchova, a finalist at this 12 months’s French Open, made it to the quarterfinals having solely dropped one set in 4 matches.
For now, Ostapenko is targeted on Gauff, whom she expects to pose a tough problem.
“I’ll attempt to deal with myself and revel in it,” Ostapenko mentioned. “It’s nice to be in quarterfinals, particularly right here in New York.”