Tennis-Swiatek ends Tauson's run to fly into Wimbledon quarter-finals
LONDON (Reuters) -A deluge of double faults dictated early terms before Iga Swiatek found her grasscourt wings to fly into the Wimbledon quarter-finals with a soaring 6-4 6-1 victory over an out-of-sorts Danish 23rd seed Clara Tauson on Monday.
The cold and blustery wind swirling around Court One was clearly not to Swiatek's liking as she opened her account with two double faults en route to dropping her serve to love.
While the former world number one immediately got the break back, her serve kept misfiring as she produced two successive double faults to drop her serve again in the third game.
But from then on the Polish eighth seed barely put a foot wrong in a match that was over in 65 brutal minutes.
"The beginning was pretty shaky with the double faults but I managed to play solid. I'm not sure if Clara was feeling that well, she said she didn't sleep well and I hope she has a good recovery," Swiatek told the crowd.
"It's never easy to keep your focus. Sometimes when you're not feeling well you let go of everything and it can give you a boost. I hope she's going to be fine.
"It's pretty amazing, this is the first time I've ever enjoyed London. Sorry guys... I mean I've always enjoyed it. I feel good on the court when I feel good off the court."
Swiatek had been prepared to face a barrage of aces from Tauson, who came into the match having served the most aces in this year's women's tournament.
Her tally of 27 aces meant she was averaging an impressive nine per match during her run to the fourth round, which included a win over 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina two days ago.
However, instead of adding to her count, Tauson surrendered the first set with a double fault and from then on her game fell apart as Swiatek won eight of the last nine games to reach the last eight for the second time in three years.
Swiatek will face Russia's Liudmila Samsonova for a place in the semi-finals.
(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, editing by Clare Fallon)
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