The World No. 1 Iga Swiatek was defeated by Caroline Garcia in the quarterfinals of the BNP Paribas Poland Open on Friday with a score of 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 in Warsaw, pulling off a surprising upset.
5th seed Garcia had previously defeated Top 5 competitors six times in her career, but her triumph over Swiatek was the Frenchwoman’s first over a reigning World No. 1.
Garcia also ended Swiatek’s unbeaten campaign on clay. Swiatek, the current champion at Roland Garros, was 18-0 on clay in 2022 and had only dropped two sets on the surface all year (against Liudmila Samsonova and Zheng Qinwen), but Garcia broke his winning streak.
Garcia, a former World No. 4, saw her ranking drop to No. 79 in May, marking the first time since 2014 that she had sunk so low. Garcia has since put together a strong summer and climbed back up to her present position of World No. 45.
