Swiatek rolls into quarterfinals; Mertens upsets Gauff

When everything is working for Iga Swiatek, there isn’t much left for her opponent to work with.

And, on Wednesday, “everything was working,” according to the six-time Grand Slam winner.

Playing with determination and domination, the eighth-seeded Swiatek overwhelmed 18-year-old Iva Jovic 6-1, 6-3 in Wednesday’s Round of 16 matchup on Diamond Court.

Swiatek will face No. 13 seed Elise Mertens in Friday’s quarterfinal. She owns a perfect 2-0 record against the Belgian veteran. 

The 2023 China Open winner carried the momentum from her comeback three-set victory over Donna Vekic into the match, immediately putting Jovic under pressure. Swiatek conceded just eight points while racing to a 5-0 lead in the opening set, then never allowed the American to find her footing. 

“For sure when you have great results on a match, it’s always a good boost of confidence,” Swiatek said. “But tennis is tough. You need to be ready for every match. Your previous results are not going to give you anything.

“I’m going to push no matter what and we’ll see how it goes.”

Swiatek and Jovic are separated by just one spot on the WTA Rankings, with the Pole ranked No. 10 and the American at No. 11. But the on-court gap was evident in their first-ever meeting.

After dropping the opening set, Jovic attempted to regroup and began to show resilience in the start of the second. After going down 2-0 to the former world No. 1, Jovic broke serve to even the set at 2-2. 

With a chance to break Swiatek for the second time in the set, the young American faltered as her hopes of beating a Grand Slam champion for the first time vanished. 

Swiatek’s forceful form proved to be too much for Jovic, as Swiatek claimed the last four games of the match to advance to the quarterfinals.  

The 25-year-old from Poland knows she has something to prove in Beijing, as a spot for the WTA Finals is on the line. 

However, Swiatek believes in her gameplay, which may be the confidence she needs to qualify. 

“Obviously sometimes playing the tournament is a bit tricky,” she said. “Not everything is depending on you. I believe what I’m doing makes sense moving forward. That gives me the most confidence.”

While the 2023 champion dominated her Round of 16 match, 2024 champion Coco Gauff struggled to find her footing. Mertens knocked out the highest seed remaining in the China Open, beating Gauff 6-3, 6-3. 

It was Mertens’ first win over Gauff in her sixth attempts and her second-biggest win of the year, having beaten Elena Ryabkina in two sets at Wimbledon.  The China Open is her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal in five years. 

Gauff faced adversity from the beginning, saving a break point in her first game of the match on her way to an opening hold. Mertens would go on to earn 12 more break points throughout the match compared to Gauff’s one. 

Mertens broke through in Gauff’s next service game, breaking serve with the help of two missed backhands and a double fault from the American. Double faults would continue to cause problems for Gauff, hitting eight in the match.  

Gauff found some footing in the sixth game of the match, breaking the Belgian at love with a booming backhand winner down the line to even the match at 3-3. 

But she couldn’t keep the momentum, losing the next three games and ending the set with another double-fault. 

Mertens got stronger on her serve throughout the match, winning 94 percent of her first serve points in the second set compared to 62 percent in the first. 

The other quarterfinal in the top half of the draw will feature China's own Zheng Qinwen against No. 6 seed Elina Svitolina. Zheng survived her fourth consecutive three-set match at the China Open to return to the quarterfinals, having made the semifinals in 2024. 

Svitolina eased through her Round of 16, closing out play on the Diamond Court with a dominant 6-2, 6-3 win over No. 21 seed Ann Li. The win put the Ukrainian into her 12th quarterfinal of the season and fifth at the WTA-1000 level. 

Surprisingly, it will be the first meeting between Zheng and Svitolina. The Ukrainian has enjoyed an outstanding season, winning the WTA 1000 title in Rome, making the final in Dubai, and semifinals at the Australian Open, Indian Wells, and Toronto.

Zheng's resurgence, which began in her run from qualifying to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open, have taken the former World No. 4 back into the Top 50. She was ranked as low as No. 160 in June.

"Tomorrow is my 24th [birthday]," Zheng said. "Mentally I'm more stable than I used to be before. I used to be very emotion at a young age.

"I would say every year I'm upgrading myself. I'm also discovering myself. It's just year by year I'm being better and better." 

By Maggie Bane and Ellis von Fintel