In the 100th WTA 1000 match of her career, World No.1 Iga Swiatek of Poland powered to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Italy's Camila Giorgi in the second round of the Miami Open on Saturday.
"I was feeling really pretty confident and I just wanted to see how I'm going to feel the surface," last week's Indian Wells champion Swiatek said after her latest win. "It was all really comfortable, so I'm happy."
Swiatek, the 2022 Miami Open champion, took just 67 minutes to dismiss big-hitting Giorgi, a former Top 30 player currently ranked No.107. Swiatek, who had a first-round bye, has not lost her opening match at any tournament since 2021 Cincinnati.
Top-seeded Swiatek now holds a 2-1 lead in her head-to-head with Giorgi. This was their first meeting outside of the Australian Open, with Giorgi winning in Melbourne in 2019 and Swiatek prevailing Down Under in 2021.
Keeping it 100: With her victory on Saturday, Swiatek has won 81 of her first 100 WTA 1000 matches. Only Serena Williams notched more wins in her first 100 matches at WTA 1000-level, with an 87-13 record. Swiatek and Maria Sharapova are tied for second place with matching 81-19 records.
If Swiatek goes all the way to the title this week, she will become only the second woman to pull off the Sunshine Double (winning Indian Wells and Miami in the same year) two times. Stefanie Graf is currently the only woman to have achieved the feat twice, in 1994 and 1996. Swiatek got her first Sunshine Double in 2022.
By the numbers: Giorgi hit six double faults in her first two service games as Swiatek raced to a 4-0 lead on Saturday. Swiatek stared down four break points at 4-1 but got out of that jam on her way to the one-set lead. Those would prove to be the only break points she faced all day.
Swiatek had an equally easy time in the second set as she romped to her tour-leading 21st win of the year. Swiatek converted five of her 11 break points on the day, and her 18 unforced errors were exactly half of Giorgi's 36.
Noskova awaits again: Swiatek will see a familiar face in the third round when she takes on No.26 seed Linda Noskova. Czech teenager Noskova defeated qualifier Maria Timofeeva 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday.
Highlights: Noskova def. Timofeeva
Swiatek and Noskova have already battled twice in the third round of huge events this year. The 19-year-old Czech Noskova stunned Swiatek in the third round of the Australian Open, en route to her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Swiatek got her revenge when she beat Noskova earlier this month in the same round at Indian Wells.
"Playing against [Noskova] is tough, as you could see in Australia," Swiatek said. "I'm going to focus on myself and learn what I did wrong, what I did good on our last matches and just use that knowledge so I can play in a solid way, really efficiently."
