Eighty-eight minutes, no fuss
Iga Swiatek walked onto Louis Armstrong Stadium under the lights on Monday night and was gone before the crowd had settled. The Polish eighth seed beat China’s Wang Xiyu 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the US Open. The clock stopped at 88 minutes.
She took charge early, running to a 3-1 lead and closing the opening set when Wang pushed a forehand past the baseline. The second set stayed level for seven games. Then Swiatek found the break she wanted in the eighth and served it out without a wobble.
“For sure it was a good day in the office,” she said on court afterwards. “I felt pretty good right from the beginning and I had the energy and the intensity. I want to keep it that way. Wang was playing deep with lot of top-spin so I needed the strength.”
Try it for $0.99.
A summer that finally turned
The 25-year-old arrives in New York in better shape than her season record suggests. Her first title of 2026 came in Toronto earlier this month, which is an odd thing to write about a player with six Grand Slam trophies. She backed it up with a run to the Cincinnati semi-finals, and the seeding committee still put her at eight.
Hard courts have never been her natural home and she says so herself. “It’s nice to come to a Grand Slam after a couple of good results, especially because this swing is never one I’ve felt super comfortable at. I’ve made a lot of progress and I’m focused on improving the little things in my game.”
Flushing Meadows owes her one good memory. She won here in 2022, her only title in New York, and a seventh major is what she has come back for. Nothing about Monday suggested the legs or the appetite are missing.
Podoroska waits
Nadia Podoroska is next. The Argentine needed three sets to get past Simona Waltert earlier on Monday, 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-3, and she will bring a very different rhythm to the court than Wang did.
Swiatek will not have to wait long to learn whether Monday’s version of herself sticks around.
Discover the rest of our Tennis news on MathODDS!
in your pocket.
Real-time notifications & alerts
Leave a Reply