By Amy Tennery
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Poland’s world number one Iga Swiatek swatted aside 25th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 6-2 with a near-flawless performance to reach the round of 16 for a fourth straight year at the U.S. Open on Saturday.
The 2022 champion never faced a break and made few mistakes as she marched through the match at Arthur Ashe Stadium, pumping her fist after her opponent sent a return past the baseline on match point. She next plays Liudmila Samsonova.
“I just wanted to kind of focus on myself,” said Swiatek.
“For sure she’s a great player and she’s really powerful so you have to be ready for the first couple of shots to be really fast.”
Pavlyuchenkova helped the three-times Roland Garros winner to the break in the first game with a pair of unforced errors on the final two points and Swiatek served to love in the 10th game.
Swiatek took the momentum into the second set, where she dropped only three of her first-serve points and put up just one unforced error, breaking Pavlyuchenkova in the third and fifth games.
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New York; Editing by Michael Perry)
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