Playing her first match in two months, and with Wim Fissette as her new coach, defending WTA Finals champion Iga Swiatek came all the way back to defeat Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 in Sunday’s opening Orange Group match in Riyadh.
Swiatek told reporters on the eve of the tournament Friday that she “didn’t feel like [she] missed a lot,” in her break, pointing to high-level practices with Aryna Sabalenka and Zheng Qinwen since arriving in Saudi Arabia. But her performance in the match’s first hour indicated otherwise. An erratic No. 2 seed racked up 19 unforced errors in the first set, and was broken three times overall, as Krejcikova raced out to a 6-4, 3-0 lead with a double-break advantage in the second set.
But from there, Swiatek stopped Krejcikova in her tracks, capturing 13 of the last 17 games as the Czech, who outside of her second major win at the All England Club in July struggled with injuries and illness in 2024, lost her grip on her game and also faded physically.
Krejcikova had beaten Swiatek in their last two meetings—both in finals—though they hadn’t played in more than a year.
