World No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland swept past China's Zheng Qinwen here in the second round of the tennis WTA 500 Stuttgart Grand Prix.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The defending champion used one hour and 26 minutes on Thursday evening to defeat the Chinese rising star 6-1, 6-4, extending her unbeaten run in Stuttgart to five matches.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Playing in her first match in 45 days, Swiatek came back strongly from her injuries and hardly missed a beat to extend her head-to-head record over Zheng to 3-0. The Pole broke the reigning WTA Newcomer of the Year twice in each set to wrap up a straight-set win, reports Xinhua.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"She's really talented, and everybody can see that," Swiatek said. "I need to adjust, and I'm just happy that I was focused on myself, on what I wanted to do... and I feel pretty comfortable."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The 20-year-old Chinese talent told Xinhua that she was dissatisfied with her performance and made some unexpected mistakes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"I lost points too quickly and made too many backhand errors, especially in the first set. The first serves were not good as well. I tried to fight back from 2-4 in the second set and that was too late," said Zheng.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
"Facing a top player like Iga, I have to deliver the best performance from the very beginning. But today I felt a bit nervous and I was not in the best physical condition. I feel like my moves are a bit slower. It's hard to overturn the match when falling behind."<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Swiatek moves through to a quarterfinal match against former World No. 1 Karolina Pliskova. The Czech outlasted Donna Vekic of Croatia in two hours and 20 minutes through a tiebreak in the third set to advance.<\/p>\r\n\r\n