Iga Świątek advanced to the third round of the US Open Grand Slam tournament. The number one seeded Polish tennis player defeated Japanese Ena Shibahara 6-0, 6-1 on Thursday. The match lasted 65 minutes.
In the first round, Świątek struggled for an unexpectedly long time, almost two hours, with the 104th in the world ranking, Russian Kamilla Rakhimova, whom she eventually defeated 6-4, 7-6 (8-6). Shibahara, 217th on the WTA list, caused her much less trouble.
The 26-year-old Japanese player made it to the main draw through qualification. She has no singles successes to her name, but she is the 2022 French Open mixed doubles champion and the 2023 Australian Open doubles finalist.
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Their match was basically devoid of history. In the first set, Shibahara managed to win only seven balls. But she had ambition. Early in the second set, she finally won a game that lasted 12 minutes. The audience gave her a standing ovation.
Later, coach Tomasz Wiktorowski’s player dominated the court again. She gave away eight more balls to her opponent before the end of the match.
Świątek’s next opponent on Saturday will be the 25th-seeded Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or the Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
In 2022, Świątek won the US Open. In the previous edition, she reached the 1/8 finals.
Women’s singles 2nd round match result:
Iga Świątek (Poland, 1) – Ena Shibahara (Japan) 6:0, 6:1.
