Iga Swiatek is No. 1 on the WTA tour right now, but that doesn’t mean that she’s guaranteed an easy victory over Jule Niemeier on Monday. After all, neither player has dropped a set on their way to Round 4 of the 2022 US Open.
Niemeier is having a strong showing at Flushing Meadows, defeating the world No. 38 (Yulia Putintseva) and world No. 39 (Qinwen Zheng) in her last two matches. But she hasn’t faced a seeded player yet—and top seed Swiatek has a target on her back.
At this year’s tournament, the German has muscled her way through the draw with a powerful serve. She’s had 19 aces so far, and 41% of her serves go unreturned—which has helped her win 84% of her service games.
On the other hand, Swiatek leads the tour in percentage of return games and return points won. At this year’s US Open, she has saved 50% of the break points against her, and broke her opponents 40% of the chances she had so far.
Just over half of Niemeier’s strong first serves, averaging over 105 mph, have gone in, compared to 61% of her next opponent’s.
Swiatek’s strength is consistency, even after third-round losses in Toronto and Cincinnati last month. She won 37 straight matches this season before losing in the third round at Wimbledon. This is her second time making Round 4 in Queens, and the Pole raised the Roland Garros trophy in May after winning her first Grand Slam there in 2020.
She’s clinched five other titles this year, dominating in the tournaments at Stuttgart, Rome, Miami, Indian Wells and Doha. She has never lost a Grand Slam match to anyone outside of the Top 100.
Here in New York, the German's been a little less consistent: She's lost more rallies greater than five shots than she's won, but has won the majority of her shorter rallies. She also knows how to play defense and fight back: She's saved 74% of the break points against her and won one-third of the break points she's created against her opponents.
Swiatek, 21, and Niemeier, 23, have never played each other or even practiced together. The Pole doesn't know exactly what to expect, but she does know that it might not be smooth sailing through to the quarterfinals.
“I know she has a pretty nice serve. We never practiced, so I don't know how it feels on a racquet, how she plays,” Swiatek said. “I know she is really talented and she [is] young. It's going to be a great battle.”
