NEW YORK (AP) — Iga Swiatek remembers when she was hardly seen, so she was excited to see a photograph of herself pictured on an commercial in Instances Sq..
As soon as little-known, it’s now vibrant lights, huge metropolis for the No. 1 ladies’s tennis participant.
“Simply attempting to get pleasure from that as a result of I bear in mind occasions the place it was fairly arduous for anyone to see me or hear me,” Swiatek mentioned. “Yeah, it simply reveals how a lot progress I’ve completed on court docket, but additionally off court docket that I’m in such a spot.”
Assume how a lot larger she’ll be in New York if she wins the U.S. Open.
The highest seed took step one Tuesday, beating Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-0 in a bit greater than an hour.
Swiatek is aware of it received’t be straightforward to regain the shape that led her to 37 straight victories this 12 months. However all it takes is seven to win one other Grand Slam title.
Swiatek is simply 5-4 since her profitable streak that included a second French Open crown. However she seemed sharp in rolling via the second set in entrance of red-dressed Polish followers inside Louis Armstrong Stadium.
“For certain in first set at the start, you understand, I performed a reasonably stable recreation, however I wanted to take it as much as one other degree,” Swiatek mentioned. “I did that on the finish and in second set, so I’m fairly happy with that.
Different straight-set winners early on the second day of the event included No. 6 Aryna Sabalenka, No. 8 Jessica Pegula and No. 9 Garbiñe Muguruza.
Venus Williams was in motion later Tuesday afternoon, an evening after youthful sister Serena opened what may very well be the ultimate event of her profession with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Danka Kovinic.
The U.S. Tennis Affiliation introduced Tuesday that Williams would lead off the evening session once more Wednesday in Arthur Ashe Stadium towards No. 2 seed Anett Kontaveit.
Swiatek mentioned she watched solely two video games of Williams’ victory Monday, with an early begin forward of her. She is attempting to turn out to be the primary participant to win seven or extra titles in a season since Serena did it in 2014.
Swiatek could also be hardest to beat on the pink clay of Roland Garros, however she’s already proven she will deal with the arduous courts, profitable titles at Indian Wells and Miami earlier this 12 months.
“She’s nonetheless No. 1 on the planet and nonetheless going to compete rather well and going to be robust to beat it doesn’t matter what,” mentioned Pegula, who misplaced to Swiatek within the French Open quarterfinals.
No. 22 seed Karolina Pliskova, the 2016 U.S. Open runner-up, wanted a third-set tiebreaker to edge Magda Linette, however No. 16 Jelena Ostapenko was ousted by China’s Zheng Qinwen.
No. 7 Cam Norrie and Seventeenth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov received in straight units on the lads’s facet, with No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz additionally in motion Tuesday.
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Extra AP protection of U.S. Open tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/us-open-tennis-championships and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
