The star player fails against a fellow countrywoman – and loses an opening match for the first time in several years
Tennis star Iga Swiatek surprisingly failed to overcome her opening hurdle at the WTA tournament in Miami. The former world number one lost 6:1, 5:7, 3:6 in the second round against her Polish compatriot Magda Linette, conceding her first opening defeat at a tournament since the 2021 WTA Finals.
The world number 56 Linette will face Alexandra Eala from the Philippines, who defeated Laura Siegemund from Germany, in the third round.
Everything went according to plan for Swiatek at the start of the match: the first set lasted just 33 minutes and went to the four-time Grand Slam winner in commanding fashion. But the favorite lost her rhythm, allowed Linette two break points in the twelfth game of the second set after a double fault and gave up the set shortly afterwards.
In the third round, Swiatek fended off four more match points before she put a backhand out of bounds and Linette recorded the biggest win of her season so far.
Swiatek, who had won the tournament in 2022, had entered the tournament as the number two seed, although she had dropped to third in the world rankings at the start of the week. Swiatek had most recently failed to reach the quarter-finals at the Australian Open and the WTA tournaments in Doha and Indian Wells.
