World No.1 Iga Swiatek saved two match points on Sunday before finally beating Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic (14th) 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 and qualifying thus for his first quarter-final at Wimbledon.
“She had match point, didn’t she? I don’t even know if it had ever happened to me to win after saving a match point, ”said the Polish woman visibly exhausted psychologically.
“In these moments, you have to try to play without being too afraid because in general it is the one who has the match point in her favor who has the most pressure”, she added.
Titled at Roland-Garros in 2020, 2022 and 2023 as well as at the US Open 2022, the 22-year-old Polish woman had never passed the 1/8 finals on the London lawn.
She will be opposed for a place in the semis to the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina (76th), victorious over the Belarusian Victoria Azarenka (20th) 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (11/9).
Against Bencic, after the loss of the first set during which she had been treated at the level of the Achilles tendon, Swiatek took her opponent’s service from the start to lead 2-0. But the Swiss recovered at 3-3.
At 5-6 on his serve, Swiatek then saved two match points with authority before quietly winning the tie break to equalize at one set everywhere.
She then quickly earned the break in the decisive set to lead 3-1, not without having saved a break point on her serve in the previous game.
She then held her face-off to win on her first match point after 3:03 of combat.
