Swiatek slides past Trevisan into French Open semifinals

PARIS, France -- Iga Swiatek continued her powerful performance in the Roland Garros draw, as the Polish teenager ousted Italian qualifier Martina Trevisan, 6-3, 6-1, to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal in Paris.

The 19-year-old stunned No.1 seed Simona Halep in her most recent match on Sunday, and the up-and-coming star did not suffer a letdown as she quelled the Cinderella run of 26-year-old Trevisan after one hour and 18 minutes of creative, all-court play. Swiatek has yet to drop a set in her five matches thus far in the fortnight.

"I just knew that I'm not going to play as perfect as with Simona," Swiatek said, in her post-match press conference. "On my level, it's impossible to keep that level of consistency. I just knew that I'm going to make some mistakes at the beginning because of the conditions. I just stayed really down-to-earth and really positive."

"I wanted to be aggressive from the beginning so I can lead on court," the Pole continued. "I did that pretty well."

Read more: WTA Insider: How Swiatek's sports psychologist honed her mental game

Trevisan had beaten an even younger Swiatek in their first meeting, which took place in a clay-court ITF Challenger event in Warsaw in 2017. But Swiatek had already leveled their head-to-head on grass in Birmingham qualies last year, and now owns a 2-1 record against the Italian.

"I wasn't thinking that I'm playing quarterfinal of a Grand Slam," said Swiatek. "I just kept doing everything I did before."

Swiatek is just the second woman from Poland to reach the final four at Roland Garros -- you have to go all the way back to 1939 to find another woman from her country to make it this far, when Jadwiga Jedrzejowska finished as the runner-up.

On a chilly Tuesday night, the teenager claimed the win from an early break down in the first set, firing 20 winners and converting six of her 11 break points. The aggressive Trevisan nearly matched Swiatek in winners, with 16, but could only convert two of her nine break points, and only won 43 percent of her service points in total.

In the semifinals, Swiatek will face another qualifier who is having the best showing of her career: Nadia Podoroska of Argentina. Podoroska earned her first-ever Top 20 win earlier on Tuesday, when she stunned No.3 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in straight sets to reach her first-ever Grand Slam semifinal.

"I need to rest and play doubles well," said Swiatek, who is still active in the doubles quarterfinals alongside Nicole Melichar. "I'm just going to not think about singles for one day. But I'm sure my coach is going to do a great job and he's going to think about tactics as always. We're going to do everything the same."

Trevisan got off to a flying start, chasing down every ball she could and drawing errors from Swiatek to break the Pole in the very first game of the match. The Italian fended off a break point in the next game and continued to fire fierce forehands at the end of grueling rallies, eventually zipping to a 3-1 lead.

Swiatek, though, methodically found her footing, gritting out a tough hold for 3-2 with some well-timed service power. The Polish player was then rewarded at the end of the next game when a backhand dribbled over the net on her third break point, and Swiatek was back level at 3-3.

From there, the Polish teenager started to take command of the opening frame. A love hold for 4-3 was followed by a series of well-placed backhands, and her advantage from that side earned her a pivotal break for 5-3 and a chance to serve for the set.

With the set on Swiatek’s racquet, Trevisan continued to play aggressively, and after claiming the first two points of the game with forehand winners, the Italian got to double break point. But Swiatek rebounded, and eventually garnered three set points in the game. On the third, a forehand by Trevisan flew wide, and Swiatek had reeled off five straight games for the one-set lead.

Swiatek kicked off the second set by breaking Trevisan in the opening game with a scintillating backhand crosscourt winner, and after fighting back from 15-40 down in the subsequent game to consolidate for 2-0, the Pole was off to the races.

The 19-year-old won her eighth straight game by breaking Trevisan again for 3-0, and though the Italian kept fighting, earning one break back to get on the scoreboard, Swiatek found the forehand down the line on her second break point of the next game to reach 4-1.

At 5-1, Swiatek garnered double match point when the netcord sent a Trevisan shot out of bounds. On her first chance, Swiatek used one of her strengths, the deep, powerful backhand, to draw a long error from the Italian and claim a spot in the semifinals of the year’s last major.