The No.1 seed breezed through her match with Stephens which only lasted 74 minutes.
Stephens committed 18 unforced errors and only scored seven winners. She did manage to hold Swiatek off and went toe to toe with her with longer baseline exchanges.
The tennis champ appears to be adjusting nicely to the US Open tennis balls. In the warm-up tournaments, the lighter balls appeared to be a problem for Swiatek and led to early exits in both the National Bank Open and the Cincinnati Masters.
She had complained that the groundstrokes tended to fly a bit more than usual. In her match with Stephens, she committed 17 unforced errors.
She appears to have adjusted now, saying:
“For sure I’m closer to accepting [the balls] than on two previous tournaments, so that’s pretty nice.”
An impressive day at the office for @iga_swiatek. #USOpen pic.twitter.com/2PJG6wzCCl
— US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 1, 2022
Her path to the finals has also been made easier with potentially problematic matches Jelena Ostapenk and Ekaterina Alexandrova dropping off. Ostapenk lost in the first round while Alexandrova lost to Davis. A player that could possibly stop her in her tracks to the Grand Slam finals is Zheng Qinwnen.
Despite her loss to Swiatek, it is undeniable that Stephens has had a great 2022. Not only did she win her seventh career title but she also managed to reach her seventh Grand Slam quarterfinals at Roland Garros.
Match Highlights: