Photo Credit: Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Facebook
Jelena Ostapenko and her domination over Iga Swiatek continues—this time on the Pole's favorite surface.
The Latvian star extended her win streak to 6-0 over the former World No. 1 Swiatek to reach her first-ever semifinal at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victory.
The quarterfinal win on clay now gives Ostapenko a complete sweep of wins over Swiatek on all surfaces, stretching back to the first career meeting in Birmingham in 2019 and just a few months ago in the Doha semifinals.
When asked if the lopsided matchup is because Ostapenko likes playing Swiatek and her opponent hates playing her, the charismatic Latvian feels it's probably both.
"I think both," Ostapenko said. "But you know, I have so much respect to her and her team and everything. What she's doing for tennis, but every time I step on the court with her, I'm like, it's another battle. I'm ready for it.
"And I'm just gonna, like, even if I don't feel great on the day, we just fight and leave it all on the court. And then I think it. Pretty helped today that I was like fighting until the very last point."
As in their previous matches, this one again felt like it was all on Ostapenko's racquet from start to finish. Early in the first set, Ostapenko with strong returns took advantage of shaky serving from the former two-time Stuttgart winner.
With several breaks, Ostapenko surged to a quick 4-0 lead. Swiatek finally enjoyed better serving late in the first set. But it wasn't enough to turn the tide. Ostapenko, serving for the set later at 5-3, banged down two back-to-back aces to seal it 6-3.
The stats told the story of the first set of Ostapenko's control of matters as she hit 10 winners and nine unforced errors compared to Swiatek's three winners and 12 unforced errors.
Swiatek turned things around in the second set as she finally started to construct more points and rallies that went her way.
Taking advantage of several Ostapenko errors, Swiatek finally got her first service break of the match to go ahead 3-1. Ostapenko battled Swiatek in her next service game, and she fended off multiple break points.
Ultimately the extended game ended abruptly when Swiatek tossed in an ill-time double fault to hand the break back. Ostapenko quickly held on her own to level at 3-all.
Yet Swiatek bounced back with aggressive play to secure the service break again for 4-3. She eventually would go on to close out the set 6-3 and force a decider.
But if Swiatek's fans were hoping at last that she would discover a winning formula against Ostapenko, their hopes were dashed in the final set.
Ostapenko, in a repeat of the first set, went back to quickly ripping backhand winners, especially on Swiatek's shorter second serves.
The Latvian as she did in the opening set, jumped out to a 3-0 advantage. From there, it was all about Ostapenko holding her own in her own service games to see her to the finish line.
While Swiatek tested Ostapenko, especially in the seventh game, it wouldn't be enough. Ostapenko dug out of 30-all and scooped up a deep shot with a looping forehand to keep her in the next point that Swiatek lost when she sent a backhand wide.
Ostapenko soon held for 5-2.
Trying to stay in the match, Swiatek soon found herself facing match points in her next service game. She saved the first with a strong serve. Yet the second match point went the way of Ostapenko, who outlasted Swiatek in the final rally.
With that, Ostapenko celebrated the well-earned 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victory.
When asked if she was surprised that she could play so well against the reigning Roland Garros champion and the most in-form women's play on clay in the last few seasons, the charismatic Ostapenko feels that her having also won Roland Garros back in 2017 gave her just as big an edge in today's match.
"You know, she's a great clay court player for player as well, but you know, I won French (Open) too so I can say about myself the same thing. I'm really, like, happy with the way I was fighting," Ostapenko said. "Even I felt like the balls were getting a bit slower when they were, like, used. And yeah, I'm really just glad that I was fighting like in the second set. I didn't feel my game so much.
"And in the third set I was like, OK, it's done the second set and done, we are playing the third set from the beginning, and I will fight until the end and we'll see what happens, but I'm really proud of myself."
Next up for Ostapenko is Ekaterina Alexandrova. The World No. 22 Alexandrova took out No. 3 seed Jessica Pegula 6-0, 6-4.