Swiatek closes out WTA Finals win over Kasatkina but misses semi

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — When Iga Swiatek throttled alternate Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 6-0 on Thursday, she played as if her continued presence at the WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF depended on it.

As it turned out, due to some complicated tiebreaks, the match had no bearing on her advancement to the semi-finals.

“Um,” said a stunned Swiatek later, “you mean it didn’t matter? What?”

Originally, with Swiatek playing Jessica Pegula, her only qualifying scenario required a win and a later victory by Coco Gauff over Barbora Krjcikova. However, when Pegula pulled out with an injured left knee, Swiatek’s match was no longer included in the semi-final calculation.

“Huh,” Swiatek said after a long pause, causing the reporters to burst into laughter.

“Honestly, I don’t think it matters. Like we go out there to win every game anyway, so … I didn’t think about that. I didn’t know that was the case.

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Was it a good thing you didn’t know?

“You know,” she said seriously, “I’m professional enough to always give 100 percent, no matter what the stakes are. So no.”

Unfortunately for Swiatek, her trip to the semifinals was cut short when Krejcikova dumped Gauff in straight sets, ending Swiatek’s hopes of a place in the last four. Had she advanced, Swiatek, 23, would have become the youngest player to reach three consecutive WTA Finals semifinals since Maria Sharapova, who achieved four straight from 2004 to 2007.

The results certainly confirm that. It was over in 51 minutes, Swiatek’s second-shortest match of the year, after a 6-0, 6-0 win over Anastasia Potapova in the round of 16 at Roland Garros that required 40 minutes.

She won an extraordinary 51 of 74 points and broke Kasatkina’s serve five out of six times.

That gave Swiatek a 2-1 record in group play and left her a keen observer of the second singles match between Gauff and Krejcikova, a match she said she might be too nervous to watch.

Pegula struggled in his first two matches but had beaten Swiatek four times in previous matches. Kasatkina, meanwhile, had lost five out of six matches to Swiatek. After taking the first meeting in Eastbourne three years ago, Kasatkina failed to win a set in five matches they played in 2022 – in Melbourne, Dubai, Doha, Roland Garros and at the WTA Finals in Fort Worth. In fact, Kasatkina played an average of fewer than four games in those meetings.

The trend continued when Swiatek broke Kasatkina’s first service game. And then the other. Swiatek won 28 of 35 points in the race for a 5-0 lead before Kasatkina took her first game after 22 minutes. Three minutes later, Swiatek converted his second set point with a resounding ace.

Swiatek had lost four consecutive matches against Top 10 players this year – Zheng Qinwen (Paris Olympics), Aryna Sabalenka (Cincinnati), Pegula (US Open) and Gauff (WTA Finals) – the longest such streak in her career.

Only Aryna Sabalenka (11) has more WTA top 10 wins in 2024 than Swiatek, who is now 10-4.