Iga Swiatek Comes From Behind To Beat Barbora Krejcikova At WTA Finals

Iga Swiatek kicked off her WTA Finals title defence with a hard-fought victory, rallying back from a set and a double-break down to overcome eighth-seeded Barbora Krejcikova in Riyadh on Sunday.

Iga Swiatek kicked off her WTA Finals title defence with a hard-fought victory, rallying back from a set and a double-break down to overcome eighth-seeded Barbora Krejcikova in Riyadh on Sunday. The Polish second seed kept her hopes of wrestling back the number one ranking from Aryna Sabalenka alive with a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 performance against Krejcikova.   Making her first competitive appearance in two months, Swiatek fell behind 4-6, 0-3 before she mounted a successful comeback against the crafty Czech. "For sure it wasn't easy. At the beginning I felt a bit rusty but I'm happy I found a way to play a little bit more solid," said Swiatek on court. "I tried to do the usual stuff that I do to control the ball a bit more because it was flying like crazy off my racquet.

"I knew I had this game in me, I just needed to find it. It was hard to be patient with that but at the end I'm glad I just kept it going and didn't think what the score was."

Swiatek, a five-time major champion, skipped last month's Asian swing and hadn't played a match since her US Open quarter-final exit in early September.

The 23-year-old Pole parted ways with her coach of three years Tomasz Wiktorowski and debuted her new partnership with Belgian coach Wim Fissette at these WTA Finals.

Krejcikova is ranked 13 in the world but claimed a place in Riyadh as one of the tour's best eight players due to a new rule implemented this season that gives priority to a grand slam champion that maintains a ranking between nine and 20 over the eighth-ranked player in the Race.