World primary Iga Swiatek fought again from a set right down to beat Qinwen Zheng 3-6 6-1 6-1 and attain the quarter-finals of the Western and Southern Open in Cincinnati, the place she’s going to face Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova.
Zheng, who beat Venus Williams within the final spherical, threatened an upset as she opened up a 3-0 lead earlier than taking the primary set as Swiatek paid the value for 23 unforced errors.
After taking a rest room break between units, throughout which she additionally modified her match package, the French Open champion rallied to drive two early breaks in opposition to the Chinese 20-year-old after which once more within the fifth sport.
Although Zheng did lastly get a sport on the board with a break of her personal, it was solely delaying the inevitable as Swiatek closed out the set with one more break.
The decider swiftly went the best way of the Pole as she moved 3-0 up earlier than serving out for what was – ultimately – a snug victory.
“My coach had said to me, ‘if you lose the set it might be a good idea to change your outfit, so you can kind of reset and go in the second set with a different vibe’ – I tried this time and it worked,” Swiatek mentioned throughout her courtside interview, broadcast by Amazon Prime Video.
Vondrousova, the tenth seed, had earlier coasted previous American Sloane Stephens 7-5 6-3 to succeed in the final eight and a showdown with the world primary.
Fourth seed Elena Rybakina, although, retired by means of damage through the second set of her third-round match in opposition to Italian qualifier Jasmine Paolini, who progressed with the rating at 4-6 5-2.
Karolina Muchova additionally made it by means of to the quarter-finals with a hard-fought 6-3 2-6 6-3 victory over quantity eight seed Maria Sakkari.