With her winning streak at 37 matches and counting, Iga Swiatek remains a warm favourite to lift the women’s singles trophy here on Saturday week after her 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 defeat of Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove on Thursday. But the fact that the No 1 seed surrendered only her third set since March – and to an opponent who qualified only as a lucky loser – should give hope to her rivals that a player who has seemingly forgotten how to lose may not be quite as armour-plated as she seems.
Swiatek was comfortable enough in the first set but her forehand went missing in the second. She briefly adjourned to the locker room to regroup before returning to break Pattinama Kerkhove’s serve in the fourth and ninth games of the third. The loss of that second set added to one she conceded to Zheng Qinwen at the French Open and another to Liudmila Samsonova in Stuttgart.
