Iga Swiatek dismantles Daria Kasatkina in Riyadh but Barbora Krejcikova makes semi-finals after beating Coco Gauff - Eurosport

Iga Swiatek dismantles Daria Kasatkina in Riyadh but Barbora Krejcikova makes semi-finals after beating Coco Gauff – Eurosport

Posted by author November 7, 2024 Tennis

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Iga Swiatek dispatched Daria Kasatkina for the loss of just one game but it wasn’t enough to make the WTA semi-finals in Riyadh.

Reigning WTA Finals champion Swiatek came back from Tuesday’s 6-3, 6-4 defeat to Coco Gauff to claim a sixth consecutive straight-set victory over Kasatkina in her final match in the Orange Group.

Swiatek’s win meant she needed the already-qualified Gauff to beat Barbora Krejcikova to advance to the last four, but the Czech Wimbledon champion caused an upset in the second match.

The Polish star raced into a dominant 6-1 opening-set lead in 26 minutes over world No. 9 Kasatkina, who had replaced Jessica Pegula at the event after the sixth-seeded American withdrew with a knee injury.

Kasatkina, who won the Ningbo title last month, was then subjected to a brutal second set, as Swiatek registered a bagel to take the match in under an hour.

Afterwards, Swiatek said: “It was a pretty solid performance from me. I’m happy that I did everything to win it and glad I have two wins in the group now.

“I feel like I was spinning the ball well and picking the right shots to play faster and being solid.

“Thank you guys for the support. It means a lot and any place I go I hear this [chants of ‘Iga’].

“I haven’t played in a while and I miss this feeling of the support.”

KREJCIKOVA BEATS GAUFF

Gauff and Krejcikova had met once before – but that was back in 2021, and on clay. While Krejcikova was victorious in straight sets that day, taking on Gauff on hard courts should have been another matter.

But the Czech player made the better start against a rusty looking Gauff, Krejcikova serving it out at 6-5, saving four break points in that game alone to close out the opener 7-5.

Gauff looked frustrated – and that seemed to continue into the second set, when the unforced errors started to mount.

Krejcikova’s hitting was relentless, and in the end she won in straight sets 7-5 6-4 to not just win the match, but the group as well – and eliminate the unfortunate Swiatek for good measure.

“I mean definitely this is a big win for me, happy with how I played and with my performance today and it was a really good match,” Krejcikova said on-court afterwards.

“Really up and down [year] and the Wimbledon victory was the highest point of my career, but being here, qualifying for the semi-finals – it is something unimaginable before the tournament and I’m looking forward to the coming challenges.

“I was fighting for every ball – I saw it as a huge challenge, and I was super excited to be here.”

That result concluded the group stages and means the semi-finals are now set:

Aryna Sabalenka v Coco Gauff

Qinwen Zheng v Barbora Krejcikova

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