Defending champion and world number one Iga Swiatek exited the U.S. Open in the fourth round on Sunday after she unravelled 3-6 6-3 6-1 against Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko at Arthur Ashe Stadium.
The Polish three-times Grand Slam winner had not dropped a set before Sunday’s match but was unable to hold off the confident 20th seed’s charge.
Ostapenko fired off a crisp forehand winner to break her opponent’s serve on match point, pumping her fist as she extended her career head-to-head record against Swiatek to 4-0.
The 2017 Roland Garros champion next faces American sixth seed Coco Gauff, who beat wildcard Caroline Wozniacki in three sets earlier in the day.
“I always expect a tough battle against Iga,” Ostapenko said. “I knew I had to play my game. I have to be aggressive because that’s what she doesn’t really like and I was just fighting until the very last point.”
Swiatek got off on the wrong foot, helping Ostapenko to a break in the first game with a double fault and a pair of forehand errors.
She broke back immediately, though, and converted on another break-point chance with a fine forehand winner in the sixth game before taking the first set.
But things began to fall apart for Swiatek in the second set.
She sent a forehand out to hand Ostapenko a break in the second game and was unable to convert a break point in the ninth game before Ostapenko tied the match at 1-1.
Swiatek looked demoralised in the third set while Ostapenko upped her level further, taking full control to cruise through the first five games and adding only two more unforced errors to her count en route to sealing victory.
She faces a tough challenge against an in-form Gauff, whom she beat in the fourth round of the Australian Open earlier this year.
“She’s a great young player, I played against her this year in Australia. It was a tough match,” said Ostapenko.
“Of course, it’s going to be another tough match. I don’t expect any easy matches here at the Grand Slams. So I’m ready for another battle.”
Gauff outlasts Wozniacki
American teenager Coco Gauff ended Caroline Wozniacki’s U.S. Open comeback with a 6-3 3-6 6-1 victory to reach the quarter-finals on Sunday.
The Dane, who returned to Flushing Meadows for the first time since 2019 after coming out of retirement following the birth of her two children, kept sixth seed Gauff on her toes for two sets but in the end her lack of match practice caught up with her and she ran out of steam.
The 19-year-old Gauff represents one of the United States’ brightest hopes at the year’s final major and she beat an opponent 14 years her senior by producing 33 winners.
She next plays the winner of a late-night affair between Polish world number one Iga Swiatek and Latvian 20th seed Jelena Ostapenko.
Gauff has been playing the best tennis of her career this season, picking up titles in Washington and Cincinnati, and refused to let herself be rattled as she handed Wozniacki a break with an unforced error in the first game of the match.
She levelled the contest in the fourth game and broke Wozniacki to love in the eighth, as the Dane struggled with her first serve and could not match Gauff’s firepower.
But Gauff lost her edge completely in the second set, where the mistakes piled up and she was forced to defend five break points across her first three service games.
She helped Wozniacki to the break in the eighth game with a pair of double faults and appeared irritated with members of her coaching staff.
Gauff handed the 2018 Australian Open champion another break in the opening game of the third set when she whacked a backhand into the net but broke back in the next game, showing fresh resolve.
The 2022 Roland Garros finalist ran away with the momentum from there, cheering triumphantly as she forced Wozniacki into a backhand error on match point.