Iga Swiatek advances to semi-final against Jessica Pegula in Canada

By Sports Desk August 11, 2023

World number one Iga Swiatek has advanced to the semi-finals in Montreal for the first time, where she will face American Jessica Pegula.

Swiatek, who has been the top-ranked woman for 72 weeks, defeated American Danielle Collins in three sets 6-3 4-6 6-2.

Collins fought back in the second set but the Polish star took advantage of the second serve throughout the match, breaking Collins twice in the last set to seal the victory.

After the match, Swiatek said she is “really proud” to go through to the semi-finals.

“I really wanted to play powerful and I’m pretty happy that I managed to even increase the power in the third set,” she said.

“For sure, I was looking for that. Today I felt like I really needed to go even higher in terms of the intensity.”

She will face Pegula, who defeated doubles partner and American Coco Gauff to end her six-match win streak in three sets 6-2 5-7 7-5.

The marathon match lasted more than two hours with Pegula holding serve to take her through to the semis.

Pegula said after the match that she wanted to stay “as tough as possible” and “keep the pressure on early”.

“It’s always tough to play your doubles partner, you know exactly what you’re trying to do. It just came down to the wire and who was going to compete better.”

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