Iga Swiatek Starts Indian Wells Tournament With Easy Victory

The world number one female tennis player from Poland, Iga Swiatek. (Wikimedia Commons/Peter Menzel)

JAKARTA - World number one Iga Swiatek began his efforts to repeat his success last year at Indian Wells with a convincing 6-0, 6-1 win over US player 56 Claire Liu, Saturday local time or Sunday WIB.

Both Liu and the windy conditions at the Stadium Court have troubled Swiatek, who is trying to become the second female tennis player -- after Martina Navatilova in 1990-91 -- who managed to defend her title in the prestigious WTA and ATP Masters 1000 tournaments.

Swiatek went through the first set by winning 25 out of 32 points. In the second set Liu managed to save a match point when he finally held service in the last game. However, Swiatek closed the game in the next game after 65 minutes.

"What is certain is Claire used that moment when I didn't play as aggressively as I should, but I'm quite happy to be able to close it fast enough," Swiatek said, as broadcast by AFP and reported by Antara.

Swiatek, who is the champion of the French Open and US Open, was eliminated in the round of 16 in Australia Open in January. Since then, the 21-year-old tennis player from Warsaw has successfully maintained his title in Doha and reached the final in Dubai.