Iga Swiatek Dominates Nadia Podoroska at US Open

NEW YORK — On a sunlit afternoon away from the glare of Arthur Ashe, Iga Swiatek turned the Grandstand into her own private rehearsal room and barely missed a note.

The World No. 8, tucked into one of the US Open’s more intimate arenas, dismantled Nadia Podoroska 6-3, 6-2 on Thursday, a performance so controlled it felt less like a contest and more like a reminder. This is what elite hard-court tennis looks like when the serve is locked in and the margins are clear.

They hadn’t seen each other across a net in six years, not since a French Open semifinal that helped launch Swiatek into the wider tennis consciousness. The stakes this time were smaller, the setting cozier, but the gap between them looked wider.

Swiatek’s serve set the tone. She landed 79 percent of her first serves and won 78 percent of those points, numbers that slam the door on any notion of an upset before it can form. Podoroska never broke her. She never really got close often enough.

The Argentinian arrived with some momentum, having battled past Simona Waltert in three sets in her opener, and for a brief stretch late in the first set, she hinted at trouble. Trailing 5-3, Podoroska held serve and then finally pried open a window on Swiatek’s delivery, earning three break points.

That was the moment. Swiatek crushed it.

Two unreturned serves erased the first waves of danger. She dragged the game to deuce, then survived two more deuces, refusing to yield ground. On her second set point, Podoroska blinked first, sending a forehand just wide. The scoreboard read 6-3, but the message was bigger: chances against Swiatek don’t linger.

From there, the match loosened. For Swiatek, not for Podoroska.

The second set never threatened to ignite. Swiatek surged to a 5-1 lead, reading the return patterns, stepping in on second serves, and gliding forward whenever the court opened. The points shortened. The rallies belonged to her.

She closed it in style, snapping a crosscourt backhand that carved away from Podoroska and died out of reach. One hour and a bit, handshake, bag packed, job done.

The scoreline flatters the winner but doesn’t insult the loser. Podoroska played a tidy match, finishing with 11 winners to 12 unforced errors, numbers most coaches would sign for against a top-10 player. Swiatek’s line was only slightly sharper — 14 winners, 13 unforced — but the difference lay in the essentials: a heavier first serve, a more punishing return, and a willingness to take the ball early and finish at the net.

That blend kept her in front from the first game and never really allowed the Grandstand crowd to feel a momentum shift. There was no wobble, no mid-match lapse, just a professional, top-tier performance from a player who knows exactly what the second week of a major demands.

Swiatek now moves into the third round, where Harriet Dart or 25th seed Maria Bouzkova will try to solve a puzzle Podoroska never quite cracked. On this evidence, they’ll need more than clean numbers. They’ll need a way to break through a serve that, at least on this New York afternoon, refused to give an inch.