Swiatek begins her campaign with win over Abduraimova

WARSAW: World No.1 Iga Swiatek kicked off her Warsaw Open campaign with a straight-sets win over Uzbekistan’s Nigina Abduraimova in the first round, here. In her first match action since a quarterfinal loss to Elina Svitolina at Wimbledon, Swiatek on Tuesday night needed 1 hour and 35 minutes to get back to winning ways.

The 22-year old Polish tennis player is in pursuit of her fourth title of 2023 at this week’s WTA 250 event in her home country, in her second appearance. Last year, she lost in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Caroline Garcia when the event was held on clay.

“For sure, it’s a pretty special tournament. It’s not an easy one to play, a little bit different stress than usual, but I’m happy for the chance to play in front of Polish crowds,” Swiatek said after the match.

“First rounds, they aren’t easy, and anybody who knows a little bit about tennis, they’ll tell you that it’s a little bit harder to play at home. Coming from grass courts ... for sure, I need to work on some stuff, but hopefully, I’m going to play better and better every day,” she added.

With this, the World No.1 improved to 3-0 against players ranked outside the Top 100 so far this year by beating World No.182 Abduraimova.

Notably, Swiatek is one of three Polish players in the draw this week, but is the only one through to the second round. Wildcards Maja Chwalinska and Weronika Ewald lost in the first round to Laura Siegemund and Rebecca Sramkova, respectively. IANS

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