Iga Swiatek stunned by Veronika Kudermetova in Pan Pacific Open quarter-finals in Tokyo
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Updated 29/09/2023 at 08:19 GMT
It was a frustrating day for the four-time Grand Slam champion, who suffered a shock defeat to the world No. 19. After grinding her way to victory over Mai Hontama on her return to the tournament, the Pole found Veronika Kudermetova in fine form. After a stunning win for Kudermetova, her reward is a semi-final against fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Saturday.
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Iga Swiatek fell to a shock defeat in the Pan Pacific Open quarter-finals, losing 6-2 2-6 6-4 to Veronika Kudermetova.
The former world No. 1 was broken in her first two service games in an alarming start as Kudermetova raced into a 4-0 lead in the opening set.
The Pole has landed a spree of bagels in recent months but looked to be staring down one herself when she went 30-40 behind in her next service game, but she managed to stave off the break point to finally get on the board.
It did not stop Kudermetova taking the first set, however, as she converted her third set point.
It looked like the comeback was on when Swiatek started the next set in rampant fashion by winning the first game to love, and followed that by breaking the Russian.
Another hold followed to move the four-time Grand Slam winner into a 3-0 lead, and it appeared that the momentum was shifting her way as she cruised to the second set.
But the cracks in the Swiatek armour became evident in the decider.
She succumbed to Kudermetova on her third break point at the end of a pulsating third game to go 2-1 down.
The Russian extended that lead on her serve, before Swiatek showed signs of a revival with a rare comfortable hold to love at 3-2 down.
But Kudermetova gave nothing away from that point and wrapped up the contest in the 10th game on her first match point to seal a place in the semi-finals, where she faces compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Saturday.
Speaking after the match in her on-court interview, she said: “I tried to just believe I can beat her. Today it happened. I’m really happy I managed to win one match.”
Meanwhile, in Beijing, Dan Evans was knocked out by Jannik Sinner in the first round of the China Open.
The Brit put up a brave fight against the world No. 7, but was ultimately beaten in three sets losing 4-6 7-6 (7-2) 3-6.
Evans held his nerve in the early exchanges, after the first four games all went to serve, before the Italian claimed a vital break in the fifth to move 3-2 ahead.
He took the lead in this contest on his second set point to move ahead in the contest.
However, it looked like a shock may have been on the cards when the world No. 33 forced a tie-break in the second set after breaking Sinner's serve for the first time at 5-5.
The Italian was now looking nervy on his service game, as Evans levelled the overall score to win the tie-break convincingly at 7-2.
But normal service was resumed from Sinner's perspective when he broke Evans again in the second game of the third set, before claiming another hold to extend his lead to 3-0.
Evans managed a break of his own to cut the deficit at 3-2, but Sinner would cut through his serve again and comprehensively curtailed the contest with a love hold in the ninth game.
The Italian will face either Juncheng Shang or Yoshihito Nishioka in the next round.
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