Iga Sviatek was on the brink of elimination in the quarterfinals of the tournament in Beijing, but the former world number one made an impressive comeback against France’s Caroline Garcia and qualified for the penultimate act of the “WTA 1000” competition.

Iga Sviatek for two points from the loss in the match against Caroline Garcia

The athlete from Poland won after two hours and 36 minutes of play with the score (8) 6-7, 7-6(5), 6-1.

Both players served well in the first set (there were no break points, a rarity in women’s tennis) and the winner was decided in a tie-break.

Carolina was the first to miss two set points (6-4), Iga could not finish the return set (leading 7-6), and in the end the Frenchwoman won with a score of 10-8.

Sviatek led in the second set with a score of 4-1, but Garcia did not give up the fight, came back and came within two points of victory (6-5, 30-15).

Iga eventually served for a 5-1 tiebreak, but it was tied at 5 and Caroline was again two points short of the semi-finals.

Garcia sent a reversal out and Sviatek was unstoppable: she won the tiebreak 7-5 and the deciding set 6-1 (she took her fifth match point).

• Iga will play the winner of the match between Maria Sakkari (6th WTA) and Coco Gauff (3rd WTA) to reach the grand final.

The China Open is held in Beijing from September 30 to October 8 on hard, is part of the WTA 1000 category and has a total prize pool of $8,127,389.

The competition was last held in 2019 (it was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic), and then Naomi Osaka became the champion.