It was only a matter of a few tournaments before Iga Swiatek found her best form. After struggling at the beginning of the season, the Pole got her feet running at the Wimbledon Championships, winning her maiden Wimbledon title. Subsequently, she also went on to win the Cincinnati Masters and the Korea Open title in recent weeks. With the Pole back to her winning ways, she will be rearing to go at the upcoming China Open tournament in Beijing. Despite being in good form, Swiatek will have her task cut out, as she has been handed a tricky path in the tournament.

In Aryna Sabalenka’s absence, Swiatek will head the women’s draw as the top seed in Beijing. She has been handed a bye in the opening round and will face the winner of the match between Yue Yuan and Yulia Putintseva in the second round. The real challenge for Swiatek starts from the third round, where she could face Anna Kalinskaya. The latter can defeat any player on her day and could prove to be a tricky opponent on the hard courts of Beijing. A potential battle against the 16th seed Emma Navarro will await Swiatek in the fourth round.

As if this wasn’t enough, her quarterfinal draw is even more daunting. Swiatek could face the likes of Naomi Osaka or Jessica Pegula in the last eight. Osaka, in particular, has seen a massive improvement in her recent results, making it to the semifinal of the US Open. Further, the tournament also marks the return of Qinwen Zheng, who will play her first match since her first-round loss at Wimbledon. She, along with Mirra Andreeva, is drawn in the same half as Swiatek and could go up against the Pole in the semifinals. The likes of Coco Gauff and Jasmine Paolini are in the bottom half of the draw and will avoid Swiatek until the finals.

Meanwhile, Swiatek got a piece of history as she lifted her 25th WTA title in Seoul. Interestingly, her father had competed at the same venue years ago but couldn’t prevail there. As a result, Swiatek joked about having achieved her father’s dream years later.

Iga Swiatek’s hilarious admission on making up for her father’s failure

Like Iga, her father was also an athlete who competed with the Polish rowing team. Back in 1988, he was with the Polish team that competed at the Seoul Olympics but failed to win a medal. 37 years later, Swiatek won a title on the same territory and made up for her father’s defeat. As a result, Swiatek made a hilarious admission about achieving a piece of history with her Korea Open win.

She said, “I’m happy that I could win here because of the family history. My dad couldn’t win the Olympics, but at least I won this tournament, so hopefully he’s going to come here next year to enjoy everything.”

Meanwhile, Swiatek also closed down the gap with World Number 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the WTA rankings. She is just over 2500 points behind Sabalenka and could further edge near with a good show in Beijing. Can Swiatek dethrone Sabalenka for the World Number 1 spot in the near future? Let us know your views in the comments below.