Tennis
The end of a terrible series. The tormentor of Russian tennis players is punished
Poland’s Iga Szwiatek lost to Veronica Kudermetova in the quarterfinals of the tournament in Tokyo.
Russian Veronika Kudermetova continues to confidently move towards the title in Tokyo. At the WTA 500 category tournament, our compatriot will definitely play in the semi-finals. To do this, she had to knock out Iga Swiatek, the second racket of the world!
And Veronica did it in a very difficult struggle.
Phenomenal Swiatek series
Kudermetova’s path to a face-to-face meeting with Shwiatek was not very difficult. Veronica knocked out Briton Harriet Dart and American Kayla Day one by one, without giving them a single set.
Iga, in turn, played only one match. She missed the first round. In the second round match, Swiatek defeated Japanese Mai Hontama in two sets.
Previously, the Polish woman and the Russian woman met four times in official matches under the auspices of the WTA. All confrontations ended in favor of Szwiatek, and three of them ended with a devastating score. Moreover, Szwiatek was on a fantastic streak of 15 victories in a row over her rivals from Russia. And the previous time a Russian managed to beat a Polish player was more than two years ago – in June 2021, Daria Kasatkina did it.
Victory on character
In the first set, it became clear that Veronica would not allow herself to lose without a fight. Moreover, after two breaks the Russian woman led 4:0! Swiatek did not expect such agility from her opponent and was unable to impose even a semblance of resistance, limiting herself to two games. The Polish player made a lot of mistakes and let them play, which Veronica used with success – 6:2.
But in the second set, Iga remembered that she was the second racket in the world. Three games taken in a row inspired Swiatek, who did almost everything. It was extremely difficult for Kudermetova to cope with such an Iga, so the Polish woman took the second set with a mirror score of the first – 6:2.
The final game turned out to be the most stubborn. Iga began to make mistakes again, but Veronica also played imperfectly. Having given up the first game, the Russian then took three in a row and was able to maintain the desired advantage until the end. Kudermetova snatched victory on her serve – with the score 5:4 and 40:15, Szwiatek took the ball into the net. As a result, 6:4 and Veronica’s first victory over Iga!
Fifth top win of the year
After the match, Kudermetova admitted how she was able to beat the second racket of the world. She just needed to believe in herself, which she did.
“I believed that I could beat Iga. Today it finally happened. “I’m very happy with my victory,” Veronica said after the match.
Kudermetova, ranked 19th in the WTA rankings, beat a top-ten opponent for the 15th time in her career. Interestingly, five victories were achieved this year. Since the beginning of the season, Veronica has beaten American Cori Gauff, compatriot Daria Kasatkina, American Jessica Pegula and Belarusian Arina Sabalenka at various tournaments. Now Iga Swiatek is on this list!
Two out of four
The tournament in Tokyo is generally going well for the Russians. In the semi-finals, Veronika Kudermetova will meet Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Daria Kasatkina could have joined them, but she lost to Jessica Pegula in the quarterfinals, taking only one game in the entire match.
However, the Russian will definitely play in the final. This means tennis fans will have someone to cheer for.
Source: Sportbox
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