At the Tokyo Open this Wednesday, Iga Swiatek faced a stern test against local crowd favorite Mai Hontama in the second round. Although the world number two and top seed won 6-4, 7-5, the match was far from easy, lasting two hours and two minutes. Swiatek struggled significantly in the opening stages, quickly dropping two breaks of serve to the qualifier and trailing 4-1 before finally finding her rhythm to turn the tide.
The Pole star Iga Swiatek was unable to make it easy against local favorite Mai Hontama in their second-round encounter at the Tokyo Open on Wednesday. After two hours and two minutes, the top seed, who is now rated second in the world, won in straight sets 6-4, 7-5. Swiatek had a terrible start to the contest. The Pole swiftly fell two breaks behind the qualifier, giving the latter a 4-1 lead. Swiatek, on the other hand, overcame her sluggish start and turned the set around.
After regaining her footing, Swiatek surged forward to win five consecutive games, claiming the first set and the early lead. The momentum didn't entirely carry over to the second set, however, as she was broken in the very first game. She responded immediately by breaking back and then dominated for a while, breaking Hontama twice more to put herself in a position to serve for the match in the seventh game.
Hontama refused to go down easily, rallying to win four games in a row and leveling the set at 5-5. The tension peaked in the 12th game, where Hontama's serve finally crumbled under pressure. Swiatek seized a few match points, and the 24-year-old Japanese player couldn't fend them off, handing the victory to her opponent. Despite the win, Swiatek's serve was a liability for much of the match.
The statistics show a struggle with consistency: Swiatek won only 22 of her 42 first-serve points, while Hontama fared better, winning 26 of 59. Her second serve was equally shaky, winning only 50% of the points. On the flip side, Swiatek was aggressive on return, creating 17 break points and converting seven of them, while saving four of the nine break points she faced. Making her Japanese debut, the 22-year-old has now reached 13 quarterfinals in 2023. Her next opponent will be the eighth seed, Veronika Kudermetova, who cruised past Kayla Day with a 6-3, 6-3 win.
The second seed, Jessica Pegula, had a much smoother path to the next round, comfortably beating Cristina Busca 6-1, 6-2. While the Spaniard actually hit more winners (13 to Pegula's 11), Pegula's discipline was the difference, committing only 13 unforced errors compared to Busca's 29. Following the match, the 29-year-old American noted that the fast court conditions encouraged her to prioritize her serve and return, which she felt she executed perfectly for a very clean performance. She is now waiting to find out who she will face in the quarterfinals.
In another notable result, Ekaterina Alexandrova managed to knock out the defending champion, Liudmila Samsonova, with a 6-4, 6-2 victory.