Iga Swiatek dominates Magda Linette to move into last eight of China Open in Beijing
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Updated 04/10/2023 at 13:53 GMT
Making her first appearance at the China Open, Iga Swiatek continued to go from strength to strength as she booked a quarter-final spot courtesy of a comprehensive straight-sets win over compatriot Magda Linette. After taking the first set 6-1, the No. 2 seed repeated the trick in the second to advance in 66 minutes. She will next face either ninth seed Caroline Garcia or Anhelina Kalinina.
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Iga Swiatek powered her way into the quarter-finals of the China Open with a comfortable straight-sets win over Magda Linette.
Eyeing her first WTA 1000 title of the year, the French Open champion dispatched her fellow Pole 6-1 6-1 on her debut at the event.
The second seed set out her stall immediately with a love hold before converting her third break point to open up an early gap.
She soon found herself a double-break ahead in the first set as she threatened to rack up her 21st bagel of 2023.
Linette finally got on the board, however, with an impressive love hold, but Swiatek saw out the set on her serve.
The writing was on the wall following her third break at the start of the second, and Swiatek showed little mercy as she secured a second break to go 3-0 up – incidentally, winning more games than her opponent had picked up points at that stage of the set.
Even as Linette started to get points on the board and claimed her first game of the set for 4-1, Swiatek continued to dominate and a final decisive break secured victory in 66 minutes.
She now faces the winner of the match between ninth seed Caroline Garcia and Anhelina Kalinina.
Earlier, No. 4 seed Jessica Pegula was stunned 6-4 6-2 by Jelena Ostapenko, while Liudmila Samsonova beat Marta Kostyuk 6-4 6-7(4) 7-5.
Rybakina battles back against brave Andreeva
Fifth seed Elena Rybakina came back from a set down to avoid becoming Mirra Andreeva’s latest scalp in Beijing.
The 16-year-old, who had already seen off Barbora Krejcikova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova so far at the tournament, was a set and a break up, before the 2022 Wimbledon champion was able to battle back to take a 2-6 6-4 6-1 win.
The teenager broke her opponent in the first game of the match to immediately put her Kazakhstani opponent on the back foot, and a crucial second break for 5-2 allowed her to serve out the first set.
Rybakina saved two break points at the start of the second set and looked in trouble when Andreeva capitalised to break and take a 4-2 lead with a love hold.
However, Rybakina demonstrated excellent powers of recovery as she reeled off four games in a row to take the second set, before racing into a 4-0 lead in the third, losing just a single point along the way.
Andreeva got on the board after saving match point to avoid a shutout, but Rybakina was able to serve out the victory and set up a potential showdown with No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka, who faces Italian Jasmine Paolini on Thursday.
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