Rio Open Fixtures & Upcoming Matches

Friday, 21 Feb 2025

20:00

Sebastian Baez Chun Hsin Tseng

20:00

Camilo Ugo Carabelli Jaime Faria

21:30

Alexander ZverevFrancisco Comesana

News

Iga Swiatek slams WTA scheduling after being eliminated in Dubai

The world number 2 suffered a 6-3, 6-3 defeat to teenager Mirra Andreeva, coming just one week after her 6-3, 6-1 loss to Jelena Ostapenko at the Qatar Open. The Pole's loss means all of the top five seeds have now crashed out of the tournament in Dubai before the semifinal stage. Swiatek made her feelings known after the defeat, and spoke bluntly about the hectic schedule that players face. She said: "For sure it's a calendar thing. Like, we're not going to be able to be consistent for many years playing week by week. "Also, it's not like some time ago that outside of, like, top-20 players, they were just getting destroyed more. "Now anybody can win these tournaments. It is like that since couple of years. But I feel like for sure the calendar is not helping. "Again, like, we need to switch continents, we need to switch surfaces, we need to switch the balls. Yeah, it's not easy. I'm not surprised." The scathing statements occur less than a week after Aryna Sabalenka, the WTA world No 1, made similar comments.

2 hours ago

Teenage star Mirra Andreeva stuns Iga Swiatek in Dubai Championships

The 17-year-old prevailed 6-3, 6-3 over the five-time Grand Slam champion and world No 2 to advance to her maiden WTA 1000 semi-final. In the first set, Andreeva broke Swiatek twice and fought off the four break points she faced in her opening two service games. Andreeva the found herself 3-1 down in the second set but reeled off five straight games to turn it around and seal her first win against Swiatek in the pair's second encounter. In her on-court interview, the teeange star said: "Honestly, I was really nervous before the match. "We played in Cincinnati last year and it was pretty intense, so I just told myself that I played great [in our last match] and I just need to continue playing aggressive and active and go for my shots. "It was also not easy with all the fans but I think we were even. I had a lot of people supporting, so thank you guys for supporting me today. It means a lot." At 17 years and 297 days, Andreeva has become the youngest player to reach the semi-finals of the Dubai Championships since the tournament was first held in 2001.

5 hours ago