Iga Swiatek would be the first person to say that she lost her composure the last time she played Zheng Qinwen: As the world No. 1, Swiatek lost to Zheng 6-2, 7-5 at the Paris Olympics last summer in a semifinal stunner, and left Roland Garros in tears after her chance to win a gold medal at her favorite venue, on her favorite surface, slipped away.
But when she faced Zheng for the first time since then on Thursday at the BNP Paribas Open, a tournament that Swiatek has equally grown to love, Swiatek kept her composure in getting her revenge. The No. 2 seed and two-time Indian Wells champion topped Zheng 6-3, 6-3 for her 10th straight win in the California desert, becoming the first player in tournament history to reach the Indian Wells semifinals in four consecutive years, and the third player to win her first four quarterfinals here following Monica Seles and Maria Sharapova.
“At the end, it got pretty windy, which made it super tricky,” Swiatek said afterwards. “You need to adjust quickly and it’s not that easy. But I’m happy that I was pushing until the end. … I wanted to be composed and really focused, and I’m glad that I did that.”
