Iga Swiatek seemingly had one thing in mind after completing a late-night 7-6 (5) 6-3 Miami win over Elina Svitolina as the Pole couldn’t wait to crawl into her bed and get some sleep.
On Monday, the Pole and Ukrainian saw the start of their match pushed back for two hours. When they got to the court, it was already – and since it took the No. 2 seed just over two hours to get the job done – it was already past midnight in Miami when her round-of-16 match finished.
“Time to sleep. Zzz,” Swiatek wrote on the camera lens.
Iga Swiatek signs the camera after beating Elina Svitolina in Miami
“Time to sleep” 😂
After midnight local time. 😴 pic.twitter.com/uTLynPwARi
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) March 25, 2025
For a place in the Miami semifinal, the 2022 champion plays against Alexandra Eala, who upset Jelena Ostapenko and Madison Keys before Paula Badosa gave her a walkover in their round-of-16 match due to an injury.
How Swiatek beat Svitolina and what she said afterward?
The first set was quite a ride for the Polish five-time Grand Slam champion as she was three times up by a break but the 22nd-seeded Ukrainian three times came back to ultimately force a tie-break. In the tie-break, the Pole opened a 3-0 lead – the Ukrainian worked her way back into the tie-break and tied it to five points apiece – before the No. 2 seed won the next two points to claim a very tight opener.
The inconsistency on served continued in the second set as well but the only difference was that Swiatek earned three breaks and lost her serve twice.
“It was much tougher to problem-solve, especially because Elina was also putting on some pressure. I needed to adjust, and I’m happy that I picked the right moments at the end to play more aggressively, and sometimes I was more patient,” the former world No. 1 reflected.
Tennis World USA