Maybe tennis fans should have been stunned by what unfolded in the first four games of the round of 16 Canadian Open match between Marta Kostyuk and Iga Swiatek. Both are excellent players, and Kostyuk is having the season of her young career so far, but both are elite at returning serve.
This likely led to neither player being able to hold serve through the start of the first set. Not that either player was struggling to land their serve, but they were just being outplayed when they did. The match wasn't an ugly one. Instead, it was beginning to be high-level tennis, proven by each player's ability to defend.
No one could have expected the entire opening set to be such a serving mess for Swiatek, though. Not only was the Pole broken in all four of her service games in the first set, but she won only one point on serve. More specifically, she won just one point on 17 service points. That's astonishing.
Iga Swiatek comes from a set down to defeat Marta Kostyuk in the Canadian Open
Not that Kostyuk was doing terribly better. She was broken three times, but her two holds proved to be the difference. The assumption was that the first set would not be how the rest of the match would play out, and any correction by Swiatek could absolutely force a third set as long as Kostyuk didn't improve on serve, too.
Again, the drops of serve weren't because neither player was landing theirs, as they both were. But the aggressiveness with which both were returning was extraordinary. Kostyuk, for instance, was stepping well within the baseline on Swiatek's second serve, and the Pole wasn't adjusting.
To begin the second set, Swiatek held, however, and her confidence had to grow. Meanwhile, Kostyuk continued to struggle with her serve and was beginning to have far too many unforced errors, no matter which wing she struck the ball from. This led to Swiatek taking firm control of the set early and riding that to a 6-1 win.
At the beginning of set three, Kostyuk was broken yet again (the sixth time in the match up until that point), and Swiatek then held. The six-time Grand Slam champion appeared to be proving why she is one of the better players of her generation. Kostyuk is a rising star, but wasn't at Swiatek's overall level in the match.
The third set appeared to be following what happened in set two. After another break of Kostyuk's serve, Swiatek led 4-1, and the set and match were likely done and dusted. Kostyuk did push Swiatek in the Pole's next service game, but Swiatek held to get to 5-1. Kostyuk then got a hold instead of being broken for the eighth time in the match, but Swiatek served out the set 6-2.
Next for Iga Swiatek will be the winner of the Jessica Pegula and Diana Shnaider Canadian Open match in the quarterfinals. Swiatek's best showing in Canada was reaching the semifinals in 2023. Pegula won the WTA 1000 in back-to-back years in 2023 and 2024. Shnaider reached the semis in 2024.
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