Iga Swiatek’s dream of a Middle East double was dashed in the semi-final of the Dubai Tennis Championship and the world No 1 admitted after the match that she was “angry” after running “out of power”.
Just days after she won a lung-busting Qatar Open final against Elena Rybakina, Swiatek returned to action in the United Arab Emirates for the second leg of the hard-court WTA 1000 double.
Although she won her first three matches comfortably, she looked weary as the tournament progressed and on Friday she finally ran out of steam in the semi-final as she lost 6-4, 6-4 against Anna Kalinskaya.
Iga Swiatek was full of praise for Kalinskaya, who also took out third seed Coco Gauff and ninth seed Jelena Ostapenko en route to her maiden WTA 1000 double, but she felt she was always up against it.
“Today I would say, I mean she [Anna Kalinskaya] played well and for sure she deserves to be in the final, but I feel like it was more about me and my level. I wanted to be focused on myself and I wasn’t really able to implement any tactics that I had,” the Pole said.
“I would say the preparation was the best I could do anyway but I wasn’t able to make anything that made sense today on the court. Maybe I did in the first six games, but then it just [went wrong].”
Kalinskaya came through qualifying and she is only the second player to beat Swiatek since September last year as the world No 1 is 24-2.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek had several frustrating moments during the match as she threw her racket at one point.
But she is not the only top player who has struggled with the back-to-back events with Gauff losing in the quarter-final while Rybakina withdrew ahead of her last-four encounter.
“I felt like I didn’t have any more power to give more, which doesn’t happen often,” Swiatek explained. “I just felt a bit out of control because usually when I tell myself what to do, I can improve my game but today I was so out of power and tired that I just couldn’t.”
She added: “Day by day, it was a little bit worse. I was not talking to you about it because it didn’t really make sense to go over it, but as I say it has been two weeks.
“I mean I’m angry but on the other hand, there aren’t many players that actually survive these kinds of tournaments so I just kind of have to let it go and accept it.”
