After her fourth-round victory extended her winning streak to 10 matches in French Open as well as this season, eighth seed Iga Swiatek is gearing up to face giant-killer Maria Sakkari with ‘patience’ as a weapon.
Sakkari had beaten No.4 seed Sofia Kenin in straight sets on Monday before Swiatek had to battle against Marta Kostyuk for her 6-3, 6-4 win.
“I have not played her, so it is hard to say. I played many practices with her, and she is really cool girl. Our teams, we like each other,” Swiatek said after the match on Monday.
“Hopefully, it is going to be good. She is the kind of player who likes to play defense as well, as my opponent today. I am just going to be ready. I am going to be patient and hopefully it is going to get results,” added Swiatek.
“It is never easy to play with one of the nicest girls on tour. Tactically, I am going to for sure be prepared. Right now I am not thinking about it, because still, I have doubles [on Tuesday]. So I just want to focus on getting my body back to being fresh,” said Swiatek further.
The Polish Swiatek struggled against her unfancied opponent in a night session match before sealing the tie.
She said that playing a night game brings its own challenges as she struggled to get into the rhythm.
“I like [being tested] because it keeps me constantly on my toes. It just keeps you focused all the time because you don’t have that flow, so… you have to work all the time,” Swiatek said.
“With that flow, you sometimes can seem surprised that, ‘Hey, something is not good,’ and then you are going to panic. But right now I am getting tested, as you said. Still, I am moving forward, so that is even better
for me,” she added.
