WATCH: Iga Swiatek’s Opponent Deploys Foul Tactics as Accidental Body Hit Sparks Attention at the US Open

Why me? Perhaps this is the right question that has been going through Iga Swiatek‘s mind at the moment. The world number one took on Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the R3 of the 2024 US Open. Although Swiatek won that match quite comfortably by a 6-4, 6-2 margin, a small moment from the match has now managed to catch immense attention of tennis fans. During one instance of that match, Pavlyuchenkova was spotted hitting Swiatek with a fiery double-handed backhand. Did she apologize to her, though?

Well, the Russian was spotted turning her back towards Swiatek, shortly after hitting the shot at her. However, this isn’t the first time, that Iga Swiatek has been caught in the firing lines! Previously, during the Paris Olympics, we saw Collins hit a powerful backhand shot towards the Polish tennis star. It hit Swiatek on her right rib and she fell down to the ground. Although, she stayed on her feet this time, still this moment has become a topic of discussion in the tennis world.

A similar situation unfolded last time as well. Swiatek came up at the net and then she couldn’t move out of the way of Collins’ fiery backhand down the middle of the court. Although she stood up on her feet a few moments later in that match, it nearly got her injured. After the match against Collins, we heard her say, “I could not breathe for a moment. It hurt for a bit. But with the adrenaline that you have on the court, you don’t feel as much as you should.”

Perhaps this hit on her body during the first point of the set made her come up with a more dominant performance in the second set. She’ll take on another Russian player, Liudmila Samsonova, in her next match for a spot in the QF. Swiatek failed to hit even a single ace in this match and this should be a big concern for her ahead of the next match. What did Swiatek say after the match?

“Anastasia is really powerful” – Who knows it better than Iga Swiatek?

Iga Swiatek will now be appearing at the R16 of a major for the 16th time in her career. What an achievement this has been for the 23-year-old! She played an exceptional brand of tennis so far in this tournament and her dominance was clearly put on display in all three of her matches. Swiatek’s matches are always full of excitement! Even this match was no exception.

Fans witnessed quite a few exciting moments in her match against Pavlyuchenkova. For example, apart from getting in the firing lines, during an instance, we saw one of Swiatek’s high spin returns dropping on the opponent’s court and then bouncing back over the net.

It was quite a hilarious moment for all those present inside the stadium including the chair umpire. However, Swiatek did apologize to Pavlyuchenkova after hitting that shot. She even heaped praise on her opponent after the match saying, “For sure she’s a great player…Anastasia is really powerful. She serves fast so I needed to use my intuition of where the ball was going.”

However, she admitted that although she likes night sessions, it was a bit noisy this time so she needed to put more focus on herself to bring the results in her favor in the R3. Share your thoughts on Swiatek’s performance in this match.