Not that Iga Swiatek needs the help during her dominant run through the Australian Open so far, but she did get the benefit of a no-call when she failed to reach a ball hit by her opponent Emma Navarro before it bounced twice Wednesday, renewing the debate over the use of video reviews in tennis.
The No. 2-seeded Swiatek’s 6-1, 6-2 victory was not much in doubt — she’s ceded a total of just 14 games through five matches heading into Thursday night’s semifinals against Madison Keys — although the score was still 2-all against Navarro when the point drawing a lot of attention happened.
“I don’t feel like it was a huge momentum swing. Obviously the score says otherwise,” Navarro said.
“I was definitely able to reset. I was kind of a little bit frustrated on the changeover,” the eighth-seeded American added.
“Maybe it bled into one point, and then I told myself: ‘It’s time to move on, it’s in the past, can’t linger on it.’”
It was a 13-stroke point, and the 10th was a drop shot by Navarro that landed close to the net. Swiatek raced forward, nearly doing the splits and dragging her right knee as she got to the ball. Her response got over the net, and she eventually put away a backhand after Navarro replied. That gave Swiatek a 3-2 lead; the match went on another 25 minutes, and Navarro didn’t take another game.
Navarro thinks that rule should be changed so final rulings can be made with the benefit of video review.
