In the Pan Pacific Open quarterfinals on Friday in Tokyo, eighth seed Veronika Kudermetova of Russia defeated Iga Swiatek 6-2 2-6 6-4.
The top seed committed several errors in the opening set as Kudermetova took a double break and went up 4-0. This was the top seed’s second match following her fourth-round loss at the U.S. Open, which caused her to slide to number two in the global rankings.
Swiatek managed to get a hold of Kudermetova for the first time in five encounters, and she attempted to create a comeback. However, Swiatek could not stop Kudermetova from taking a set off her.
Although Kudermetova easily gave up the second set, the 26-year-old was in the lead when Swiatek gave her an early break with a double fault in the final.
The Russian remained calm after the match and ended with a superb serve.
Kudermetova’s next opponent is Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who defeated fellow Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-2, 7-5, to advance to her first semi-final since her run to the 2021 French Open final.
Due to a knee ailment that required surgery, Pavlyuchenkova’s career was put on hold last year; nonetheless, she persevered to regain match fitness on the lesser tours and eventually made it to the quarterfinals of the Roland Garros tournament in June.
“I think the most important (thing) is to be humble and play whatever you can to get back to the level,” Pavlyuchenkova said.
“I was simply trying to climb to the top, working my way back to this level. I’m just trying to have fun since my career is ending.
