Iga Swiatek on Tuesday shrugged off lingering weariness to partner Casper Ruud to back-to-back victories in the revamped mixed doubles competition at the US Open.
Swiatek — who on Monday had battled through a two-hour tussle with Jasmine Paolini to win the Cincinnati Open — looked full of energy as she and Ruud powered into semi-finals.
Swiatek and Ruud needed just 39 minutes to dispatch the US pairing of Madison Keys and Frances Tiafoe 4-1, 4-2 in their opening game at Arthur Ashe Stadium, and then reappeared about 20 minutes later to defeat Caty McNally and Lorenzo Musetti 5-3, 4-2 in their quarter-final clash.
Photo: AP
The victories capped a grueling 24 hours for Polish star Swiatek, who hot-footed it to the airport after Monday’s win in Cincinnati, Ohio, and only arrived at her hotel in New York in the early hours of Tuesday.
“Honestly the last two days have felt like one day, but I’m super happy to be here,” Swiatek said, adding that her tight turnaround had helped her unwind after her exertions in Cincinnati.
“Honestly, I think actually it’s kind of nice for the recovery,” she said. “To have another task and to not let yourself be lazy, but also focused on the next exciting thing.”
Ruud and Swiatek had just enough time to fit in a quick practice before taking to the court in their first match as a doubles pairing.
“I was happy to team up with Iga,” Ruud said. “She’s on the winning train these days, so I’m just jumping on the train and let’s see if we can win some more before the mixed doubles is over.”
“I think everyone should show some appreciation to Iga today. She only got to her hotel 12 hours ago at 2:30am, and she’s here playing,” he added.
Swiatek and Ruud were to meet top seeds Jessica Pegula of the US and Britain’s Jack Draper in yesterday’s semi-finals.
Pegula and Draper clicked smoothly to eliminate the glamour pairing of Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Raducanu 4-2, 4-2 in the first round before easing past Russia’s Daniil Medvedev and Mirra Andreeva 4-1, 4-1 in the quarter-finals.
Medvedev and Andreeva had earlier romped past Novak Djokovic and Olga Danilovic in straight sets in the first round, winning 4-2, 5-3.
In other results on Tuesday, US tennis icon Venus Williams and partner Reilly Opelka exited against Karolina Muchova and Andrey Rublev, losing 4-2, 5-4.
Italy’s reigning champions Andrea Vavassori and Sara Errani ousted second seeds Elena Rybakina and Taylor Fritz 4-2, 4-2.
Earlier on Tuesday, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner’s withdrawal from the mixed doubles was confirmed as expected. Sinner, who retired due to illness in the first set of his Cincinnati Open final with Alcaraz on Monday, was due to partner Katerina Siniakova in the doubles.
Sinner and Siniakova were replaced in the draw by the US duo of Danielle Collins and Christian Harrison.
This year’s US Open mixed doubles competition was over Tuesday and yesterday in the week before the main singles draws get under way.
The tournament is using a modified scoring system, with short sets to four games, no-advantage scoring, tiebreakers at four-all and a 10-point match tiebreak in lieu of a third set. The final would be a best-of-three set match to six games, featuring no-advantage scoring, with tiebreakers at six-all and a 10-point match tiebreaker instead of a third set, with the winning pairing pocketing US$1 million.
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was
RSS