Iga Świątek Unstoppable! Storms into the Stuttgart Quarterfinals with Authority

After her first-round bye, World No. 2 Swiatek booked a spot in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-2 second-round victory over Croatian qualifier Jana Fett.

The Pole has been the dominant force on clay during this decade and her Stuttgart performances are no exception. This is Swiatek’s fourth appearance at this tournament and she has never failed to make the quarterfinals or better.

Swiatek is now 11-1 at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. In her first two appearances at the event, she won the title, beating Aryna Sabalenka in the 2022 and 2023 finals. Her only Stuttgart loss has been to eventual champion Elena Rybakina in last year’s semifinals.

With her victory over 153rd-ranked Fett, former World No. 1 Swiatek has won her last 18 matches against players ranked outside the Top 150.

Her most recent loss to a player ranked below No. 150 was against another Croat, Ana Konjuh, who was ranked No. 338 when she beat Swiatek at Miami in 2021. (Alexandra Eala beat Swiatek at Miami this year while ranked No. 140.)

Swiatek did not face a single break point as she zipped through the first set. Fett was also solid in that respect, saving six of the eight break points in the opening frame, but she just could not make inroads in Swiatek’s service games.

Fett made a bit of a move in the second set, earning her first break in the opening game and leading 2-0. But that would be the extent of her surge as Swiatek won the following six games to close out the match in 1 hour and 16 minutes.

Fett was undone by double faults. She hit nine in the match — including on Swiatek’s second match point to finish the encounter. By contrast, Swiatek was superb on her own delivery, dropping serve only once and winning 81 percent of her first-serve points.

Fett falls to 0-4 against Top 10 players in her career, but she has come close to a Top 10 win in the past. Most notably, she held two match points against No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki in the second round of the 2018 Australian Open. Wozniacki battled back to win that match — and went on to win her first Grand Slam title at that very tournament.

In the quarterfinals, Swiatek will take on either No. 7 seed Emma Navarro of the United States or 2017 Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.

Swiatek is 2-0 against Navarro but Ostapenko is a very different story. Swiatek has never beaten Ostapenko in their five career meetings, including a loss this year in Doha.