For the first time in 74 tournaments, Iga Swiatek lost her opening match in a WTA Tour event.
The second seed dropped an all-Polish matchup against Magda Linette 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 on Thursday in the second round of the Miami Open at Miami Gardens, Fla.
Swiatek, like the rest of the top 32 players in the field, received a first-round bye. Her opening-match winning streak featured trips to the quarterfinals or further in each of the past six majors, including a title run at Wimbledon last year, her sixth career Grand Slam crown.
After cruising through the first set, Swiatek struggled the rest of the way. She earned just one break point total in the second and third sets and couldn’t convert.
“I stopped doing anything well tactically,” Swiatek said. “… It just was a bad match for me in the second and third sets. Unconsciously, or consciously, it’s hard for me to say. I need to work to get back from that, because I haven’t felt things like that for like five years.
“I’ll just get back to work and try to get something positive out of the practices … and try to figure it out.”
Linette told Tennis Channel, “I just had to go for a little bit more. I had to start hitting a little bit faster, too, to push her a little bit more back, not give her space. But I think it all started with serving a bit better.”
Linette advances to a third-round match against 31st-seeded Alexandra Eala of the Philippines. Eala also escaped a one-set hole, beating Germany’s Laura Siegemund 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-3.
The Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova, seeded 32nd, trounced France’s Elsa Jacquemot 6-2, 6-2 in a second-round match.
In first-round action, Venus Williams fell to 0-6 on the season when she lost to Great Britain’s Francesca Jones 7-5, 7-5. Williams, 45, has lost nine matches in a row since earning a first-round win at Washington last summer.
Sloane Stephens downed Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-2 in an all-U.S. matchup. U.S. players Taylor Townsend, Caty McNally, Hailey Baptiste, Ann Li, Peyton Stearns and Alycia Parks all advanced, while Ashlyn Krueger and Katie Volynets lost.
U.S. qualifier Elvina Kalieva eked out a 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5) victory over Hungary’s Dalma Galfi.
Also moving into the second round were Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse, Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska and Yuliia Starodubtseva, Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova, Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva, Russia’s Anastasia Zakharova and Oksana Selekhmeteva, Austria’s Lilli Tagger, Italy’s Elisabetta Cocciaretto, the Czech Republic’s Tereza Valentova, Spain’s Paula Badosa and Australia’s Talia Gibson and Emerson Jones.
–Field Level Media
