STUTTGART, Germany – Iga Swiatek had a victorious clay-court debut for the 2024 season, when she defeated Elise Mertens 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the Porsche Grand Prix in Stuttgart.
Coco Gauff battled her way to the quarter-finals with a hard-fought 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 win over compatriot Sachia Vickery.
No.4 seed Elena Rybakina survived a stern test from Veronika Kudermetova to reach the quarter-finals for the first time, coming through a rollercoaster to advance 7-6(3), 1-6, 6-4 in 2 hours and 33 minutes.
Gauff created 19 break points but could only convert seven of them against the world No. 3 in the second round. She had 15 double faults in the match, but rallied from 4-2 down in the final set before winning in 2 hours, 26 minutes with her first match point.
Gauff, who received a first-round bye at the clay-court tournament, awaits the winner between No. 7 Zheng Qinwen and Marta Kostyuk, AP reported.
Kostyuk earlier overcame former champion Laura Siegemund 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-4 in their first-round match. The Ukrainian player twice served for the match in the second set only for Siegemund, who won the Stuttgart tournament in 2017, to take it to the third.
In the other second-round match, World No.1 Swiatek, playing her first match on the dirt since she won last year’s Roland Garros title, needed 1 hour and 33 minutes to hold off 30th-ranked Mertens and claim a spot in the Stuttgart quarter-finals for the third straight year.
“I’m really happy with the way I played,” Swiatek said according to wtatennis.com. “First match on clay, so it’s always tricky. Elise was really good. Sometimes at defense I had to be patient and really work for the points. So I’m happy with the way I handled it.
“That’s one of the things you have to switch from hard court, you have to be ready for longer rallies and for players to be able to get back more. And also, I can use that. I can also get back more balls. So it works both ways, but you have to switch that mindset to be more patient.”
Two-time defending champion Swiatek remains undefeated at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, improving to 9-0 at the event with her latest win over Mertens of Belgium.
Poland’s Swiatek has defeated World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka in each of the last two Stuttgart finals.
Mertens has accrued many victories in her career, including seven wins over Top 5 opposition, but this was surprisingly her first meeting with Swiatek in singles.
Swiatek held sway in their first showdown, converting four of her six break points.
Second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka, meanwhile, advanced when her opponent and close friend Paula Badosa retired at 3-3 in the third set with an apparent leg injury.
Badosa had a medical timeout while leading at 5-4 in the second set and returned with strapping on her left leg.
“I feel so bad for her… I don´t have any emotions right now, I´m not happy, I´m not sad,” said Sabalenka, who advanced 7-6 (4), 4-6, 3-3, retired.
Rybakina will next face Dubai champion Jasmine Paolini, who saved two set points in the first-set tiebreak en route to a 7-6(8), 6-4 upset of No.7 seed Ons Jabeur.
She defeated the Italian in their only previous completed match in Rome last year, but retired from their rematch in Cincinnati due to injury.
The win over Kudermetova improves Rybakina’s 2024 record to 23-4, and puts her into her seventh quarter-final of the season.
he has only fallen before that stage once this year, exiting the Australian Open in the second round to Anna Blinkova.
Kudermetova is one of four players who have won two titles in 2024 already, alongside Iga Swiatek, Danielle Collins and Jelena Ostapenko.
The former Wimbledon champion fell in the second round of Stuttgart in both of her previous appearances, losing to Paula Badosa in 2022 and retiring against Beatriz Haddad Maia in 2023.
Rybakina maintained her perfect record against Kudermetova, whom she has now defeated four times in four meetings — two of which have been three-setters. They had not played since Chicago 2021, and this was their first encounter on clay.
After an early exchange of breaks, Kudermetova piled the pressure on Rybakina as a tight first set reached its climax. At 5-5, ferocious returning from the Tokyo champion garnered her three break points.
However, Rybakina saved all of them with clean winners, then took control of the ensuing tiebreak with some of her most aggressive play of the match to that point.
But an unbowed Kudermetova not only kept her strong form up in the second set but went up a level. A backhand slam dunk overhead and a forehand pass on the run were among the highlights as she began to dominate, eventually running away with it as Rybakina’s error count mounted to 12.
Emma Raducanu powered to a 6-2, 6-1 win over former top-ranked player Angelique Kerber in a first-round meeting of two players with wild cards for the draw. The 2021 US Open champion goes on to meet Linda Noskova in the second round.
Ons Jabeur also had to fight hard to prevail in a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1) win over Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia. Jabeur was down a break in both the second and third sets before winning.
