Iga Swiatek vs. Karolina Muchova
“Honestly, I love playing against her,” the Pole says of the Czech. “I also love watching Karolina. It’s just nice to see someone who plays so smart and so smooth. She’s like woman’s Roger [Federer].”
“Woman’s Roger” has been living up to that lofty nickname of late. Muchova is coming off a title run at the 1000 in Doha last month, and is riding an eight-match win streak. But as much as Iga loves her game, she also knows how to counter it. Swiatek is 4-1 against Muchova, and hasn’t lost to her since 2019. When they played in this round at Indian Wells a year ago, she won 6-1, 6-1.
Just don’t tell Swiatek it’s going to be that easy on Wednesday.
“The head-to-head might be to my side, but I can remember all these matches I played against her, sometimes I was down, like, break in third,” Swiatek says. “She’s an amazing player, and most of the times we played really tight matches.”
One of them happened in the 2023 Roland Garros final, which Swiatek won 6-4 in the third.
This feels like it could be just as close. When Muchova has everything clicking, as she does now, she’s a Top 5 talent with the capability of beating anyone on any surface. The medium-slow courts in Indian Wells would seem to be her liking, and give her chances to do what she loves best: Send a ground stroke into a corner and close the net behind it. That’s how she has had success against Iga in the past.
So far this year, Swiatek hasn’t been as sharp as Muchova. But she seems motivated by that fact. After losing to Maria Sakkari in Doha, she skipped Dubai, went to work on her footwork and preparation, and got revenge on Sakkari, 6-3, 6-2 on Monday.
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