Beatriz Haddad Maia hands world No. 1 Iga Swiatek just her third loss since February in Toronto

HIGHLIGHTS: Haddad Maia holds off Swiatek in three tough sets

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What is “wow” in Portuguese? Beatriz Haddad Maia was asked this question after her 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 win over Iga Swiatek in Toronto on Thursday.

“Wow,” the Brazilian answered with a smile.

The word is the same in both languages, apparently, and it’s an appropriate one for this wind-scrambled, three-hour upset. This was the 26-year-old Haddad Maia’s first-ever crack at a world No. 1, and she made the most of it.

The 6-foot lefty made the most of it in many different ways:

• By punching and counterpunching on roughly equal terms with Swiatek, a player who has overrun her opponents from the baseline all season.
• By getting into an unstoppable service groove at just the right time, late in the third set, when it looked as if Swiatek was going to bounce back from a 2-4 deficit to steal the win.
• By doing something that too few of Swiatek’s opponents have done this season: Attacking her second serve, which often landed short and kicked right up into her strike zone on her forehand side.
• Most of all, Haddad Maia did it by staying relentlessly positive and focused as the wind played havoc with the ball, and her opponent kept finding ways to stay in the match. When she lost a point, no matter how important, she moved on to the next. When she needed a point, she found the open court—with a serve, a return, a forehand, and a few perfect little reflex shots around the net.

“The conditions were not easy,” Haddad Maia said, “but tennis is like that. I’m very happy with my mental game today.”

Any time a world No. 24 beats a world No. 1—and a player who had won 38 of her last 40 matches—it’s a surprise. But this wasn’t a shock, because Haddad Maia (a) has the size and power to slug with anyone, and (b) she has been working up to a result like this. She won back-to-back titles on grass before Wimbledon, and recorded wins over players like Maria Sakkari, Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova.

Haddad Maia’s rise really began in 2020 and 2021, when she reached the finals of 10 ITF-level events and won nine of them. She plays a lot, in a lot of different conditions, and it shows in her level-headed mental approach. Winning seems to have become a habit with her, no matter who is on the other side of the net. Including Swiatek.

Has the Pole’s charmed run of 2022 come to an end? For five months, she was covered in that fairy dust called confidence. Nobody could touch her, and she had a winner for every occasion. But fairy dust blows away eventually, for everyone, and no one stays supremely confident forever. Some of the rifle shots that were landing a few inches inside the lines for her are now landing a few inches outside them.

“I struggled to find my rhythm on the court,” Swiatek said. “Probably because she’s a lefty and I had a hard time adjusting to her serve.

“Plus the wind. I think without the wind I would manage. But it was pretty crazy out there.”

Swiatek says, “I know what I want to work on, and what I want to improve before the next tournament, for sure.”

Will she improve it, and find her rhythm, in time for the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati, which starts on Monday? There may be more wind to come, after all, there and in New York.

“I don’t know yet,” Swiatek said, “but I will find out.”

The rest of the WTA will certainly be curious to find out, too.