Google News AGEL Open: Iga Swiatek sets title showdown against home hopeful, Barbora Krejcikova
by ABBEY JOHNSON
It will be Iga Swiatek versus Barbora Krejcikova in the final of the AGEL Open on Sunday. The two French Open champions will square off in Ostrava after winning their respective semi-finals on Saturday. Both needed three sets to come through.
Swiatek defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-4 in two hours and 38 minutes. Of the two players, Alexandrova won more first-serve points – 75% to Swiatek’s 61%. But the latter did better when it came to winning second-serve points, 66% to the latter’s 51%.
Alexandrova narrowly lost the opening set in the tie-break although she mounted a swift comeback to level the match after claiming the second set. The deciding set saw just the one break of serve on Alexandrova’s that gave the Pole the chance to close out the match and take the win.
AGEL Open: Barbora Krejcikova holds aloft Czech aspirations
In the other semi-final, Krejcikova came from a set down to oust Elena Rybakina, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4 after two hours and 21 minutes. Krejcikova won 82% of her first-serve points to Rybakina’s 77% and 56% of her second-serve points to the latter’s 60%.
Both players lost their serve twice in the match. For Krejcikova, both breaks came in the first set. In the third set, she didn’t face any break point. The AGEL Open encounter will be the third time Iga Swiatek and Barbora Krejcikova will play against each other.
Swiatek won both these matches – played at the 2021 Miami Open and 2021 Rome Open. In terms of individual statistics, the finale in the Czech Republic's the eighth that Swiatek’s reached in 2022. She’s won all finals she’s contested previously that included building a 37-match winning run all the way from the Qatar Open to the third round of Wimbledon.
Meanwhile, Krejcikova’s now reached two finals in as many weeks. Last week, she defeated Anett Kontaveit in the latter’s home tournament at the Tallinn Open in Estonia. Photo Credit: AGEL Open Twitter