[Epoch Times, March 21, 2022](Epoch Times reporter Wang Yezhi comprehensive report) On March 20, local time, the Indian Wells tennis tournament in the United States held the final match. In the men’s singles final, local player Taylor Fritz defeated Spanish king Rafael Nadal 6-3/7-6(5) in straight sets, ending his opponent’s 20-game winning streak and winning his first masters Championship; in the women’s singles final, the post-00s Polish star Iga Swiatek defeated No. 6 seed Maria Sakkari 6-4/6-1, and achieved a “back-to-back” win after Doha. , its world ranking will rise to second place.
Nadal’s 20-game winning streak ended in poor form
Nadal, who is 35 years old, has been exempted from injury since August 6, 2021; he has returned from injury at the beginning of the 2022 season, and has won consecutive victories and won three championships in a row, including the Grand Slam-Australian Open , made a 20-game winning streak, created the best season start in his 22-year career, and successfully entered the Indian Wells Masters final. Its final opponent was the host player, 24-year-old Fritz, who entered the Masters final for the first time in his career.
As the biggest “dark horse” in this tournament, Fritz has no pressure to play lightly, and he is full of firepower as soon as he comes up, taking a 4-0 lead. Nadal struggled to catch up under adversity, even saved the inventory, and once chased the score to 3-5, but Fritz withstood the pressure and won the ninth game, winning 6-3.
Before the start of the second set, Nadal applied to leave the court for treatment. After returning to the game, he broke serve first in the third game, but was broken back by Fritz in the next game. After the ninth round, Nadal again called for a medical time-out between rounds and let the physical therapist massage his back. In the next game, after saving a match point, Nadal thrilled to save the unreliable serve. After that, the two sides held their own serve and dragged the game into a “tiebreaker”.
In the “tie-break”, the score of the two rose alternately, and Nadal once took a 5-4 lead; but after that, Fritz scored three points and won the final victory with 7-5. Fritz became the first homegrown player to win the title here since Agassi in 2001 and the first American to win the Masters since John Isner’s summit in Miami in 2018.
Post-00 Polish star wins back-to-back
Women’s tennis has entered an era of beauty and beauty since Serena Williams slipped from the peak. Among the post-90s players, Halep, Muguruza, etc. emerged successively; after that, Naomi Osaka and Barty broke out; now post-00s players have also begun to rise, and Andreescu became the first in the US Open in 2019 The post-00s grand slam champion, after that, post-00 players Swatek and Le Ducanu also won the grand slam one after another.
Among them, Poland’s new star Swatek is the most outstanding one among the many players born in the 2000s. At the French Open 2020, she won the women’s singles championship with a blockbuster. In 2021, she reached the final in the 1000 series second only to the Grand Slams-Rome Station, sent two eggs in a row, and defeated Capfeng. 2022 is a season for Swatek to mature. She reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open, almost overturning the final champion Barty, and swept Kontaveit in the second set of the Doha final.
At Indian Wells, Swatek’s road to promotion was smooth sailing, and he entered the WTA1000 finals back-to-back, winning 10 consecutive victories in various events, tying the best performance of his career. Its final opponent is the 26-year-old Greek star Sakari. In the first game, after the two battled 4-4, Swatek scored two consecutive games to win the game 6-4. In the second set, Sakkari’s state declined, and the Polish star took full control of the game, winning 6-1 and winning the championship “back-to-back”.
Now, Swatek has extended his winning streak to 11 games and has won 20 games in the season, creating the best record for a female player this season. With the recent excellent performance, Swatek will be promoted to the second place in the world ranking. In just a few short years, Swatek has won five tour titles, all of them heavyweight. With the continuous improvement of hard-court skills and the original good performance on the clay court, Swatek’s prospects are optimistic by many experts, and he will have the opportunity to attack the world‘s No. 1 Barty in the future.
Responsible editor: Zheng Huang