Nineteen-year-old Iga Swiatek is no stranger to fourth rounds at Grand Slams, having already been to the Round of 16 at both the 2019 French Open and the 2020 Australian Open. If the Warsaw, Poland, native keeps it up, that’s exactly where she’ll find herself at this year’s US Open, as Swiatek is one win away from that feat.
Currently ranked No. 53 in the world, Swiatek upset No. 29 seed Veronika Kudermetova in the first round and took out American Sachia Vickery 6-4 in the third on Friday morning in a match that was resumed from the previous evening because of rain. She faces Victoria Azarenka on Saturday for a spot in the coveted fourth round and a guaranteed $250,000.
Swiatek has won seven ITF singles titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 48 earlier this year.
Here’s a little more about Iga Swiatek, whose father Tomasz Swiatek was an Olympic rower who competed in the men's quadruple sculls event at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul.
She looked impressive coming back from injury to start the year.
At the 2020 Australian Open, Swiatek was playing her first tournament since she underwent foot surgery following the 2019 US Open. She defeated Tímea Babos, Carla Suárez Navarro and Donna Vekić, without dropping a set before falling to Anett Kontaveit in three sets.
Winning the 2018 French Open girls' doubles title with Caty McNally wasn’t even her biggest junior achievement.
That would be winning the girls’ singles title at Wimbledon a few weeks later, defeating Leonie Küng of Switzerland in straight sets. She became the fourth Polish junior champion at Wimbledon after Alexandra Olsza and the Radwanska sisters.
She is not afraid to change up her game style.
She tweeted after her match against Vickery: “My only goal right now is to learn how to compete and win not always playing ‘my kind of tennis.’”
Her last name is often mispronounced.
It’s not Swee-a-tek. Not even close. It’s closer to: Svi-A-tek. The proper way to say it is: Shvee-ON-tek.
