A lot for that Coco Gauff-Iga Swiatek showdown.
The No. 1 player on the earth couldn’t delay her end of the cut price. She, in reality, couldn’t come close.
After taking the primary set, Swiatek was steamrolled by Latvian Jelena Ostapenko, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium, bowing out within the fourth round of the U.S. Open on Sunday night and losing her world No. 1 rating to Victoria Azarenka in the method.
“I knew she’s a fantastic player and he or she’s very, very consistent, especially [the] previous couple of years. I also knew she would have all of the pressure because she’s obviously No. 1,” Ostapenko, the 2017 French Open champion, said after she improved to 4-0 in her profession against Swiatek. “I believe if she lost against me today she loses the No. 1 spot. I used to be just attempting to make it hard for her and to play my game and to fight until the very last point.”
As a substitute of a quarterfinal showdown against last 12 months’s Open champion, the sixth-seeded Gauff will meet No. 20 Ostapenko, who had never advanced past the third round in Flushing until Sunday.
Gauff is now the best seed in her half of the draw.
At one point, Ostapenko won 11 of 14 games, absolutely dominating Swiatek.
She won 25 of 36 points in a brisk third set and broke Swiatek seven times within the one 1-hour, 48-minute match.
The No. 1 seed had cruised in her first three matches, dropping a grand total of nine games.
But her luck modified in the ultimate match of the day at Ashe.
And so did her hopes of repeating because the U.S. Open champion.
“I’m just surprised my level modified so drastically. I don’t know what happened with my game,” Swiatek said. “I had no control suddenly. I don’t know why I began making so many mistakes.”