Iga Swiatek suffered her earliest defeat at WTA 1000 level in more than a year and half as she was bundled out of the Miami Open in straight sets.
An outstanding performance from Ekaterina Alexandrova put paid to Swiatek’s hopes of winning the “sunshine double” of Indian Wells and Miami for the second time in three years, the 29-year-old Russian prevailing 6-4, 6-2 to claim the most significant victory of her career.
Alexandrova, who had never previously beaten a reigning world No 1, becomes only the third player to defeat Swiatek this season, and the third ever to survive a match against the Pole at this category of event without dropping serve. It was Swiatek’s first loss to a top-20 player since last September, when Veronika Kudermetova thwarted her in the quarter-finals of the Japan Open.
“She played an amazing match and for sure she was a better player out there today,” said Swiatek after suffering her first defeat before the quarter-finals of a WTA 1000 event since the 2022 Cincinnati Open. “I had a hard time reading [her serve], and I got a little bit tense also when I couldn’t return well.
“At the end, I think all that really made my game worse. I was feeling like I can’t play in a natural way, but it’s not like I always feel comfortable on court, so I thought I was going to be able to work through that.”
Alexandrova’s excellence ensured otherwise. The tone was set from the opening game, when the Russian fired a blazing forehand winner to secure what would prove a vital break. In the sixth game, Alexandrova fended off the only break point she would face on the evening, gobbling up a short ball behind a meaty first serve, and there was a perceptible swagger in her step as she served out the opener to love.
By this stage, Swiatek’s unforced errors were outnumbering her winners by a ratio of two to one, yet worse was to come for the Pole. As her forehand became increasingly wayward in the face of Alexandrova’s aggressive baseline onslaught, Swiatek suffered the rare indignity of losing five straight games from 1-0 up in the second set. Her difficulties were compounded by the excellence of Alexandrova’s return game, the Russian alternating between stepping inside the baseline to crush huge returns off Swiatek’s first serve, and retreating to deal equally severely with the higher-bouncing topspin of her second delivery.
It was a winning formula, one that will not have gone unnoticed in the locker room, although with 27 unforced errors to just 11 winners – a department in which Alexandrova dwarfed her, battering 31 winners including eight aces – Swiatek undoubtedly contributed to her downfall. Struggling with the transition following her title win in Indian Wells, where the courts are slower and the balls lighter, she simply failed to find her best form in Miami. After demolishing Camila Giorgi on Saturday, Swiatek declared herself happy with the conditions, but that changed after she became embroiled in a taut three-setter with Linda Noskova the following day.
“I kind of changed my mind,” she said after defeating her Australian Open conqueror for a second straight tournament. “Now I know that I still have some things to figure out.”
The same could be said for Coco Gauff, the third seed, whose ambitions of winning her hometown tournament were undone by Caroline Garcia, the 23rd seed. The 30-year-old Frenchwoman prevailed 6-3, 1-6, 6-2, her third successive victory in five matches against Gauff, who was unable to contain her opponent’s free-flowing aggression despite a strong second-set fightback.
From a familiarity with the local climate and surroundings to the backing of the home crowd, all the advantages seemed to be in the US Open champion’s favour. That feeling increased when Garcia, who defeated Naomi Osaka in straight sets in the previous round, required treatment on a shoulder problem that took the sting out of her first serve. But the former world No 4’s first-strike style proved too hot to handle for Gauff, whose challenge faded quickly once she failed to seize opportunities to break at the start of the decider.
“It’s definitely a great match and great win for me,” said Garcia, who will face Danielle Collins, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Sorana Cirstea, for a place in the last four.
“I try to always be very aggressive and take some time away. Looks like Coco doesn’t really like it.”
Alexandrova, through to the quarter-finals for the second year in a row, will play Jessica Pegula after the fifth-seeded American defeated Emma Navarro 7-6 (7-1), 6-3. The Russian is under no illusions about what she will need to do if she is to avenge her straight-sets defeat to Pegula in the only previous meeting between the pair, which came just under three years ago in Rome.
“Probably the same thing I did today [against Swiatek]: so stay consistent, stay focused and just focus on my game, not on the opponent,” Alexandrova said. “[I’ll] just do my best and we’ll see.”