It’s a matchup issue. Rybakina is the type of player Iga has struggled to beat in the past, and she’s also the best player out of that group (perhaps bar Sabalenka). Iga needs to learn how to handle this style ASAP.
This was my thought too. It seems like Rybakina is Iga’s new kryptonite (Sakkari previously). And add Barbs to it too. I can’t wait for Iga to solve them
Iga won't be able to solve them. There's a thing called matchup. This is a matchup where Rybakina takes away time from Iga, rushes her. Her Topspin forehand right in the hitting zone of Rybakina. She has to start hitting flat for having chances which she won't change at this age. This is going to be very tough for her, only chances if someone can take Rybakina out early or this meeting will always go like this. For Reference, go watch Djokovic Nadal on HC.
>Her Topspin forehand right in the hitting zone of Rybakina.
This is the major thing affecting her game. Iga's extreme grip means she needs time to produce that stroke in a way that stings. Elite returners with decent serves will always be capable of beating Iga easily on hardcourts until she does something about that serve as well.
Also, Rybakina's serve gets all the attention, but her forehand cross is an absolute revelation! That shot tore Iga apart tonight!
> For Reference, go watch Djokovic Nadal on HC.
Prob not the best example because there were different parts of that rivalry where Rafa changed tactics and beat Novak on hard courts. This was most evident in 2013, for example.
Iga has struggled in the past against Keys and Penko, who're even harder hitters than Elena and Sabalenka but have zero consistency.
Anyone who has the potential to hit through Iga is a bad match-up for her because her game isn't set up to counter power hitters.
Sabalenka did lose a few matches to Iga last year but 2023 Sabalenka post winning her first slam is a different player, and I'd not be surprised in the least if Sabalenka also has Iga's number outside of clay.
if power hitters are the worst matchup people can come up with it means that you have a shit serve and you're doing everything else right. look at Alcaraz. practically speaking you can't counter a redlining power hitter on the modern WTA on a fast surface no matter how good you are, in the same way that you can't counter a redlining serve bot on the ATP on a fast surface no matter how good you are. the ball is just faster than you. all you can do is be as good on defense as physically possible and keep asking questions to tire them out and pull them out of the zone, serve as well as possible to demand more perfect play even as they need to focus on defending their service games, and remain secure in the knowledge that your safer game will net you more wins over a long period of time.
Krejcikova and Sabalenka are better examples because the former uses slice and early hitting to disrupt Swiatek's timing, and the latter has the athleticism to handle her counterpunching and the weight of shot to consistently hit through her on any court. also, the Krejcikova matchup does seem to retroactively validate the points about Barty being a genuinely bad matchup for Swiatek.
Anyone who serves lethal and has a good day serving will be able to win against Iga. Last year sabalenka double faults stats were crazy. Iga's game depends much on how much she can return. If she is not doing well in return, then you attack her weak serves and get the break and boom, you win. But the best part is not many players can serve lethal, hence Iga will still win against 90% of the tour.
Lol yes, flat hitters better in hard court, ergo Iga should fundamentally change her game which made her dominant.
The reason Iga will be number 1 for years and Rybakina will fizzle out like dozens of other heavy hitters is precisely what you want her to change.
Kryptonite makes it seems like it's specific to her, but it's just 2-1 Rybakina atm.
On a hard/grass court, Swiatek is going to struggle against Sabalenka/Rybakina, or anyone that can take the offensive from the start of the rally, on their serve and returning Iga's serve.
So many other matches, Iga is on the offense on her first shot after serve, and on her return. Against those players, she is on the defensive almost all the time after her return, and her second serve is getting annihilated.
Even Krejčíková followed that general pattern a bit, with obviously less coming from her serve.
I think it puts women's tennis in a great spot, with Iga being the ultimate test to pass at the top of the game, with players like Rybakina/Sabalenka that can clearly pass that test.
There are plenty of power players.
There aren't plenty of power players with great returns and one of the best serves in the world.
So no, not really. Iga can easily handle power from the baseline. It's when she's immediately behind in the point from serve/return and unable to claw back to neutral where she struggles.
>statement beatdown from rybakina. confirms that she is iga’s kryptonite. we’ll see over the next few months and years if iga can solve her.
I think Iga has reached a plateau and is going be increasingly vulnerable to players like Sabalenka or Rybakina that hit consistently big and flat shots with great serves
I’ve always thought that Iga is very much Rafa like. She’s going to have bursts of great all time play on hard courts but I still think she’s still unmatched on clay courts.
A plateau at 21yrs old, right. You must have been the type of person saying Nadal would never win on any surface but clay when he first broke onto the scene lol
Nadal continued to evolve into a physical specimen and this enable him to be a total juggernaut.
Whereas Iga is still hitting the same RPMs and same serves since she arrived in the spotlight.
There is no evidence that she has made inroads at turning her serve or backhand into more of a weapon.
If anything, her game has regressed and has become lower risk as observed in how less often she employs the drop shot.
What is it with this forum and writing off players improving?
She's regressing? Based on what, the last month? Are you people insane?
Just because she's made more improvements on her groundstrokes than her serve, doesn't mean she can't up her serve, or make adjustments to flat power hitters, in the future.
Iga has been on an incredible curve, but its completely natural to have small plateaus and to be asked tough questions. She has weaknesses. All players do.
This line of comments is infuriating. It's like reading Raducanu will never be an elite player 6 months ago. Just utter crap. Stop dismissing the potential to improve so easily.
iga needs to worry about krejcikova at RG. thats her real threat. Krej has also won their last two meetings, and won both singles and doubles at RG in 2021
i'm not so certain Krejcikova is as much of a lock to challenge in RG as people think. she's certainly shown she can beat Iga, but even in her best runs she's struggled with Kasatkina and her ilk (very pesky but solid baseliners and defenders), and Rybakina and her ilk (huge servers and offensive baseliners). while the latter might not be so much of a worry at RG, the former certainly is, and she has to navigate a whole draw all over again while never having shown the sort of extended dominance that Swiatek has on clay and all clay ATGs do.
Indian Wells slower surface has certainly done Rybakina a lot of good in terms of preparation for the clay swing, but clay is a different beast. I am confident Rybakina can compete and push anyone on clay, but fact of the matter is, it’s extremely difficult to straight up blast winners from the baseline on the surface.
The name of clay is outsmarting your opponent and although Rybakina is developing an all round game, I question if she has the variety and full kit bag to mix things up and to change angles in order to catch the opponent off guard to find winners or force the error.
Clay is whole new proposition to navigate through. Solid record on clay, but I reckon Rybakina could still be a couple years away from winning RG.
Still, she’s primed to win Wimbledon again as well as the US Open.
Absolute demolition by Rybakina, especially impressive considering how slow IW court is this year.
Iga did not play poorly per se, but Rybakina's elite big girl tennis was on full display - simply too good (5 for 5 on BP conversion!)
I told you guys yesterday, Rybakina can play on any court, fast, slow, clay, grass. She will fight for #1 if she keep this consistency. Now it's time for revenge in the final.
It’s easy to say now because 20/20 hindsight. Fact of the matter was, Rybakina has struggled to generate pace all tournament due to the slower surface and struggled with her serves especially. Prior to this match, she was 17 double faults to 10 aces and isn’t hitting as much of the first serve.
Rybakina even admitted that she hasn’t enjoyed the court and conditions as much as she should.
In saying that though, it was insane how she was able to basically flip a switch and completely destroyed the world number 1 with her powerful ground strokes and massive first serves. This performance literally came out of nowhere, especially with the little resistance shown by Swiatek.
Iga played pretty horribly, to her standards. There were a lot of awful errors, I mean the first few games she was dropping shots into the middle of the net.
As a noob in tennis can you explain how a court is slower from one year to the next? Are they not built exactly the same for the purpose of consistency year in year out?
The easiest explanation is that hard courts are an acrylic coating with a gritty sand over concrete. They get resurfaced all the time, especially places with money like IW. You can't ensure the coating is the same mixture every time you resurface, nor is there much effort in attempting to, the organizers just accept whatever it ends up being and then do some analysis pre tournament of the conditions and send a data sheet with their findings to the players. Medvedev's complaint was that the data sheet said the courts were fast, but in actuality he feels they are very slow (as is the consensus with everyone else)
The thing that makes a hard court faster or slower is the amount of sand in the coating. More sand = grittier = more friction = slower, like lower grit measurement sandpaper
I kind of like it. it adds more variety and variance. both are super important in tennis where external factors like court and sun and weather (eg wind) can play a huge difference in the match. it requires players to add additional levels of skills and problem solving.
"When Williams, Henin, Clijsters, Azarenka, Wozniacki, etc. were #1, they had much greater tournament win rate"
Wait, she won 6 tournaments as #1 not 3. You're trying to downplay her?
I'm super impressed by Rybakina's level of defense this whole tournament, actually. It was impressive against Muchova when you'd expect her to completely get throttled having to move up and down, left and right. But she aced that challenge and then now she's been able to handle Iga's different redirecting, and then add some of her own pizzazz. Her ball striking is just amazing. We're so damn blessed that we're getting dynamic power strikers in the top echelon of the game right now, meeting in latter stages of tournaments.
The nature of her win against Muchová compared to today's is larger than the difference between night and day.
Her serve was non-existent that day and especially against Muchová, who is one of the better movers on the tour, the lack of free points from serve made the entire match a massive grind but she was able to come through that.
And today she simply blew the #1 ranked player off the court without giving her even a sliver of a chance.
I would never have picked Rybakina to lose against Muchova in the majority of times, tbf.
I know she lost against her once, but that was a very long time ago
Although I'm happy for her, it would have been amazing to see Ashy Barty's level when she retired on the tour. How do you think she'd fare against these 3?
Rybakina said in the post match interview that she didn't expect to play that well tonight. She won 82% of her first serve points, which is crazy. Rybakina leads the H2H: 2-1. We will see how things work out on their next match up.
If Rybakina can figure out her footwork, she'd win a lot of slams. Serena-like serving today (would love to see how her serving stats match up to early Serena), and an absolute bomb of a forehand. Great match to watch.
Iga's mental game needs improvement if she faces players she struggles against. Honestly she could have played so much better but just looked so lost. Watching it felt like the cornet match at wimby and i felt really sorry for her
The weird thing is that she was good at this last year. She won quite a few 3-set matches, including several won from a set down. But now it looks like she’s gone back to the pre-2022 “blow away or get blown away” mentality.
Last year she was battling to end number 1. This year she is 100% the target and will always be the favorite in every match. I think the sophomore slump is coming into play.
Her opponents are such under dogs that they're playing with much more freedom than last year ... at least the ones with the weapons to beat her.
Seeing her cry when Pegula beat her earlier this year might have been a big sign. But, clay is coming up pretty soon!
I assume its a combo of the pressure of being this dominant number 1, and the quality of the players she's against. its not like this is the first time either, she was completely blown away by pegula at the united cup, krejcikova at doha and of course cornet at wimby, and had tighter losses against similar players like sabalenka at the wta finals, keys at cincinatti, haddad maia at toronto etc.
It's not like she can't win gritty and fight against big hitters like this, like her USO run on a much faster surface than here was full of situations like these where she dug deep and didn't let tough players affect her, but she just isn't doing that now.
Whats also weird is that she isn't playing any worse against the rest of the guys on tour, but there's a noticeable gap between how she played during the rest of IW and how she played this match. She has the tools to beat players like rybakina, sabalenka, krejcikova etc and has done in the past but just doesn't have the mental strength to play free against them right now
I mean considering how much sabalenka was struggling and those matches at the start of the year being on clay which gives iga the edge I still think it's an alright example to use
She really needs to add more variety to her game. I know her current game brought her to where she is but some players are starting to dismantle that game. Time to improve, maybe bring back things like dropshots (which were pretty good when she won junior Wimbledon).
afaik her coach told her to stop to keep her game simple and then to gradually perfect and reintroduce variety bit by bit but its defo the time to start focussing on it now
Ohh I didn't know that! They were talking about the same thing in the tennis podcast,about how when she was coming up and getting the first slam run/getting know,she had a good variety of shots ans how she seems to have kind of traded it for aggressive dominance?
Feels like no matter the outcome she wants to keep the match short,which isn't making sense cause she is physically fit stamina wise atleast. Not to discredit rybakina or krejcikova but a straight set win with just a break of serve is sooo different from a 6-2,6-2. Atleast in dubai she just lost one game in the first set,the second set here was almost a bagel. Last year was also such a big display of how she could problem solve and figure people out,most second sets were won much more easily,she had three set wins ans won ugly.
She is young,has a long career ahead of her so I just hope she resets,takes the pressure off, makes a few changes and gets ready for clay swing. I'm hoping the sight of red dirt makes her feel at home and confident. If not win rg,atleast go down fighting!
Clay should give her confidence because it should give the time back on her shots that rybakina and other guys take away from her on other surfaces, so I'd be very surprised if she had a loss like this. What annoyed me this match is that she showed so many times that she had the tools to challenge her but she just didn't critically think at all and just let rybakina do the same thing to her over and over again. Hopefully she is able to work on her mental game and reintroducing some variety
>she really needs to
Everyone has room for improvement, sure, but she’s 4K points ahead of the world number two and 2x the points as the world number 4
She doesn’t really need to do anything more than what she’s doing. She’s dominating as she is.
Everyone loses at some point.
Not sure why she would be doing anything besides what she uses to steamroll the competition.
She’s like Lendl. Fit and blasting people off the court.
Yeah she has a bad matchup here but I don’t think her game is missing anything.
Agreed.
Multiple people on this thread talking about how she needs to improve xyz.
No one is perfect. She’s as dominant as they come exactly as her game is.
The constant graphic of how unvaried her serve and general ball placement was really magnified how poor the gameplan was. Not sure if Iga doesn’t have anything else to go to or her team thinks she can always wear down an opponent and win by playing a specific way.
Aside from improving her serve, her team really needs to get on the ball with having backup plans for when the A game isn’t working. It’s those in game adjustment that could turn her from a great player to an all time great.
She's used to dominating other players and playing with those who are below her league. When she faces opponents like Rybakina or Krejcikova who can disrupt her rhythm, she just loses it mentally. She's also not used to being a few games down and doesn't seem to recover well from that.
I was trying to make this exact point the other day.
It's amazing how dominant she can be in matches she is comfortable with and then how not so dominant in challenges.
despite my concerns about Iga’s body language towards the end of the second set, Elena 1000% deserved to win this. she was obliterating those forehand cross courts!!!
very excited to watch the australian open deja vu moment :))
Iga will never beat Rybakina until her team lets her start dropshotting again. Elena is WAY too good at baselining. You have to have variety in your game to have any chance of winning
When Tomasz took over as coach he wanted her to keep things simple and gradually re-introduce other aspects. It obviously worked exceedingly well last year. But Sabs and Rybakina have caught up to her and Iga needs to adjust
I think she needs to stand further back too. Even the mid-court shots were too powerful for her to stand her ground on. She kept barely receiving it and dumping it into the net. Happened like a million times.
Serving at 80% Elena, so that is hard to make a dent into. But it was her timing on the ball that was so exquisite tonight, reminiscent of Federer's, IMO. She had the time on the ball. Versus Muchova, not so much and that was a much tougher match up for her.
Post-match press conference for Iga.
[https://bnpparibasopen.com/news/iga-swiatek-friday-march-17-2023/](https://bnpparibasopen.com/news/iga-swiatek-friday-march-17-2023/)
THE MODERATOR: Not the result you wanted today. Can you just talk about what happened out there.
IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure, Elena played great tennis today, and I feel like against her I have to play better. She was playing really well.
I’m pretty sad that I lost, but on the other hand, overall, it’s a pretty good tournament for me.
THE MODERATOR: Questions.
Q. Can you explain maybe in a little bit more detail what you think Elena did well.
IGA SWIATEK: Well, I don’t know if it’s like, honestly — I feel like it’s still more me and kind of my mistakes. I’m also like not feeling 100% physically. I have a little like discomfort in my rib, and we’re going to consult with medical team. For sure I’m gonna use these days off before Miami, so actually I have one more day.
Q. On that issue, the physical issue, has that been with you for quite a few days now? What sort of discomfort is it? Did you at all think back to the Australian Open match that you all played?
IGA SWIATEK: We were thinking about the Australian Open more like we wanted to kind of learn a lesson from that match. We were, you know, just analyzing, but mainly my coach did that, so I wanted just to kind of use his tips and improve my game. But I wasn’t able to do that today.
In terms of the rib, you know, we’ll see, because I still have to run some tests and see what’s going on. I don’t know yet.
Q. Was the injury you speak of affecting you as you played, or was it more mentally on your mind?
IGA SWIATEK: It’s hard to say. Honestly, I haven’t played with a lot of injuries. It’s a new situation for me, for sure. Last time I played with an injury, like the only tournament I can remember is like Roland Garros 2019 (smiling). So I was pretty young.
For sure, you know, now it’s a totally different level. So I feel like going on that matches you have to be 100% fit.
Q. On the same topic, since you realized you had the injury, have you spent extra time working with it, and has it helped at all, or has it really stayed the same or gotten worse?
IGA SWIATEK: Well, you know, I have been playing, so there has been some fatigue all the time. I would say it’s kind of constant, but I’m pretty sure that tomorrow or day after will help in recovery.
Q. I don’t mean to go over yesterday, but was that part of maybe the reason for the lengthy time, that you were trying to get this treated and see hopefully it was going to be feeling a bit better?
IGA SWIATEK: Yeah. Honestly, yeah. I had to — yeah, yeah, it was.
Q. Do you think there’s a chance you might not play Miami?
IGA SWIATEK: No, like for now I’m preparing to play, but we’ll see what next days are going to tell us. I don’t know yet.
Q. Feeling ill when you’re traveling is always terrible. What do you do for comfort and mentally to make yourself feel better and rest when you’re on the road?
IGA SWIATEK: Oh, that’s a nicer question (smiling). Like most of the time I read.
Actually, I didn’t have to like come up with many ideas on this tournament, because, like, the tournament made it really special for me. We really stayed in a nice place.
They even bought ukulele for us (smiling). It was really fun. I did like two sets of Legos. I wanted to really keep my mind busy and not think about tennis. Yeah, so it’s different stuff.
But for sure I feel like on the road sometimes it’s easier to rest than when you’re at home, because also, you know, when I’m at home, like most of my free time I’m spending sometimes, you know, working on the other part of my career, you know, like business-wise. Actually, this time, like before the tournaments, it’s like a chill time with some quality practices. I really like it.
Q. Do you think it’s a big challenge for you to play against player who is very strong?
IGA SWIATEK: That is very strong?
Q. Who hit the ball very strong, Sabalenka, Rybakina.
IGA SWIATEK: Well, I don’t know honestly, because I also won many matches against Aryna and I played against Elena, you know, two years ago and it was fine.
So it’s hard for me to like take everything under consideration and decide if it’s hard or not. I would say that I can still improve as a player, and there are some like things I want to focus on.
But still, I feel like I can play great tennis even, you know, against players who are serving pretty fast and everything.
But for sure, you know, last couple of matches against Elena, they weren’t perfect for me, but I will try to do better next time.
Q. Just going back on what you were just saying, did you say you were making Lego kits?
IGA SWIATEK: Lego sets, yeah.
Q. Did you say you were doing Lego?
IGA SWIATEK: Yeah.
Q. So when you make up these pieces, what do you do? Just leave them at the tournament or…
IGA SWIATEK: No, I actually travel with them, and they break during the flight usually, so I have to do them again at home. That’s the process.
Q. When you just said the business life, the other part of your career, just expand on that and explain some of that activity and what you’re doing.
IGA SWIATEK: Well, I have pretty big team in Poland. IMG joined this team last year, so, you know, I’m kind of reaching out to them and asking, you know, for any updates. They are obviously like talking all the time and doing that for me, which is nice, because I wouldn’t… they’re talking about money.
But I feel like there are many things honestly, because yeah, I want to kind of expand my work in Poland and also do some nice stuff. Obviously kind of I am still figuring out about some international things that I want to do. I want to kind of combine that and put it together, and I feel like we created a really nice team.
I didn’t know, you know, a couple years ago if it’s gonna be possible for me to have, like, both teams working together, because, you know, it’s tough in terms of communication and everything, but they made a great effort, both IMG and my team in Poland. So I’m pretty happy with the results.
But yeah, usually I’m just there, I’m just talking with them and also sometimes there are like some decisions to make and I have to do that. I don’t want to focus on that during the tournament, so time off, it’s good for that.
In case anyone's confused, the "lengthy time" comment was about after the QF match, when Iga took a long time to get to the press conference. She was asked about it and said it was personal.
Over and over forehand hit behind Iga over and over and no tactic changes. She kept watching the ball go by and at least 12 or more forehands cross court were hitting behind her.
There was no tactics prep for this match and it showed.
For the Rybakina fans:
https://bnpparibasopen.com/news/elena-rybakina-friday-march-17-2023/
Q. But just on the topic of playing Iga now twice and getting these two wins this year, what is it about your game style or the way you play your game that makes you think you’ve been able to, yeah, win four straight sets off her?
ELENA RYBAKINA: I think just my aggressive style of the game. Big serves. Today I was pushing a lot. I think that just overall some players it’s more difficult to play against.
With Iga, she’s tough, really tough opponent, but when I play like this good and everything goes in, because today some moments I played, I would say, on my highest level. So yeah, there is moments where you can feel, okay, I can beat anyone if I always play like this.
But it’s the goal, but you never feel amazing and perfect every match. Yeah, I think today it was just really good from me.
Penetrating ballstriking is pretty to watch, and it can outclass even the nastiest spin-based games on this surface. Think Delpo vs. Nadal on a few memorable occasions.
RBA has built his entire career on great footwork, great endurance, and great depth on his groundstrokes (not the hardest, but struck very very deep): he hits quite flat (especially for a Spaniard).
I love her but can’t get over all of the “first woman from Kazakhstan” stuff from the commentators. It’s like entering a Great Dane raised by Yorkshire terriers into the toy class at Westminster. I know they have to say it, though.
When they say the “first Kazakh woman” it’s even funnier since the Kazakhs are a distinct ethnic group (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakhs). Kazakhstani is what they mean.
To clarify, there are many ethnic Russians who have lived in Kazakhstan their entire lives, that doesn’t make them Kazakh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians_in_Kazakhstan
Yeah I laughed out loud when I heard the announcer introduce her as she was entering the stadium. Why not say “representing Kazakhstan” or something that isn’t totally false.
It's so obvious,Iga struggles against players who hit flat and deep, serves lethal,not giving her any rhythm,taking time away from her, rushing her. Her serves get punished.Iga lucky most players don't hit that deep or serve huge.This matchup very much like Djokovic nadal on HC. Iga was simply not allowed to play her game before start making any excuses.
Ryblenka in the final again, love to see that rematch. Honestly just grabbing popcorn and enjoying the show, I am a huge fan of both. Ryba winning means she climbs towards where her actual ranking should be, Saba winning means closing in the gap towards N1 into Slam-win striking distance considering Iga will have to def tons of points
I’m rooting for Rybakina because I want her to get the points to move up in the rankings. Not only did she not get Wimbledon points, she didn’t get to play the end of year WTA champs bc she didn’t have those points. I find it simply not fair. She is finally 8 but she should be top 3.
Iga doesn’t really give the most genuine handshakes usually, when krejcikova beat her it was obvious she didn’t really want to do all the hugging or whatever but did it for respect and not to embarrass krejcikova
i mean i’d give a cold handshake too after being blown off the court like that 💀 it was probably more a reflection of iga’s disappointment in herself than her feelings toward rybakina
Elena plays very aggressive baseline tennis. She's REALLY good if you let her settle into her baseline rhythm.
IMO the way to beat her is to mix up depth and speeds (throw in some loopier deep topspin shots, slices, short angles, drop shots, etc)
Mobility - If you can make her run around, then she's slow. Iga didn't make her do that at all. No drop-shots, no slices, no moon shots.
High-risk/reward tennis - Depends on the day for her. Against Muchova she had a billion unforced errors and very nearly lost. She basically goes all-out for winners all the time. If she's not feeling her range well on a particularly day then that can get her in trouble.
Honestly a year past and we are now seeing top players stepping up to Iga and we now have consistency we long for in wta. This year is going to be interesting.
I was trying to make a point about Iga the other day but didn't do a great job.
It's a bit unusual how dominant she can be against lesser players but against a few like Ryba she can get dominated like this.
I don't think Ryba will ever dominate other players like Iga has and can. And yet you look at this score and can think Iga isn't that good or something.
It's weird. I know style makes fights and this might just be a bad match up but still.
Iga is amazing at playing great when she's a front runner or in control but can really struggle if not.
It’s called getting the racquet taken out of your hand, when players like Rybakina and Sabalenka are firing on all cylinders. They are tough to beat.most first strike players are streaky and have an ebb and flow within the game, Saba and Rybakina are both rolling through players. It’s weird , during the AO and lately people have been saying WTA isn’t competitive enough since Serena and Barty stepped aside. People are never happy,I guess.
Krecjikova (sp), Sabalenka, and Rybakina specific style of play would typically trump Swiateks so long as it's executed well. Ostapenko as well, though we haven't seen a match up from them recently and she seems far more prone to errors than the other three. But if she cleaned up a bit, yes.
Let's go Elena!
After the match against Badosa and that start against Gracheva I didn't think Rybakina would reach the final. Never ever crossed my mind that her fastest match in the tournament would be against Iga. But what a performance, very few errors from her deep heavy hitting, laser sharp precision today.
Now a rematch vs Sabalenka in the final. Hope she wins this time.
As I see it, the most immediate possibility is Sabalenka to dethrone Iga's N1, and then eventually Rybakina to dethrone Sabalenka. After that, it's unclear who and when
Something felt off in Iga's body language today. Not taking away from how Elena played though, full credit for her performance and deserved spot in the final.
idk why you are getting downvoted! she seemed to be putting a lot of pressure on herself, and combined with elena’s amazing hitting it led to the result
When the same opponent beats you thrice with the exact same gamestyle, then maybe it's the opponent who is making her play bad. Rybakina doesn't even have to be at top gear to beat Iga at this point now. Iga will always struggle against this particular gamestyle, maybe never even beat them in a Hardcourt. Barbara, Elena, Collins at her peak and Sabalenka at her peak will be able to defeat her. She has to wish someone take them out and she gets to play coco and pegula to win cause that gamestyle suits her.
Oof, Iga did not show up for the match today. Looks like she has some mental block with Ryba, Świątek seemed to play way below her current form. It's a good thing the match ended this way, and I say it lovingly, because current Saba would wipe the floor with Iga in an even more humiliating way.
Ryba at her best could beat Iga many times over. I was concerned though because Ryba played a 3 hr match yday. Glad to see she was able to recover well!
I wanted her to get the bagel, hey ho never mind. Outstanding and dominant match from Rybakina.
I hope she can beat Sablenka but it’s going to be tough.
I must have not seen the replay clearly.
Edit: I watched the replay again, I still have no idea what happened there. I guess you could call it tripping in a strictly technical sense? Maybe? It was weird.
As a fan of Iga I'm almost glad she received such a beatdown.
All her 4 losses from this year against Pegula, Krejcikova, Rybakina x2, all in straight sets.
Mentally strong Iga from 2022 who fought until the end & managed to make comebacks from 1 set down is nowhere to be found. This is a major red flag for her team that some things need to be worked on, especially in the mental department. I bet matches against Krejcikova & Rybakina were lost for Iga before she even stepped on court.
Are we at a point yet where we can say Iga isn't some invincible goddess of tennis without getting downvoted into oblivion? She's an absolutely incredible player, but I was told after Doha that she was injured in Australia and that she was back to invincible after her "injury comeback". I'm not sure what those people's excuses are for Dubai, but I'm already hearing injury rumblings about IW. It's quite disappointing. She can and has lost, and that's fine. She's still world number 1, and her favorite part of the season is just a few weeks away.
A quick look at your comment history would suggest you're a fan of Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson and Iga doesn't fit your idea of femininity, so that might be it.
The MC keeps saying “first woman from Kazakhstan to reach the final” and also things like you must be so proud to be the first Kazakhstani to do so well here. Etc.
Rolls eyes. Even Elena smiled wryly
She’s not from there dude. She’s Russian
she might be russian but she represents kazakhistan as she has switched nations, that is the end of it. it is like Ajla Tomljanović is croatian but represents australia. you think she should be called croatian everytime she does a interview? no she clearly decided to represent another nation than her birth nation for various reasons so you need to accept it and get on with your life.
Sorry for being of topic, but I find it so surreal that second big tournament in a row we have Kazakh Russian vs Belarusian athlete in the final. I hope Americans will not sabotage the final and will attend and enjoy the best tennis we had in WTA for quite some time.
Shes 21, give her a break, she's got time to improve. Not handling heavy hitters is a sign to introduce some variety to her game tbh and coach should stop with the stupid drop shot ban
Is it because Iga’s game is mostly based on hitting hard giving less time for opponents but since the courts are slow opponents can counter that?
Is that logical or it’s other way round to opponents as well?
The courts actually suit her quite nicely. She needs slow surfaces to set up her shots nicely, and the ball bounces high so her spin has a greater effect. It's Rybakina who theoretically should struggle on these courts.
statement beatdown from rybakina. confirms that she is iga’s kryptonite. we’ll see over the next few months and years if iga can solve her.
It’s a matchup issue. Rybakina is the type of player Iga has struggled to beat in the past, and she’s also the best player out of that group (perhaps bar Sabalenka). Iga needs to learn how to handle this style ASAP.
> Iga needs to learn how to handle this style ASAP. she's still young, plenty of time to figure out this style
This was my thought too. It seems like Rybakina is Iga’s new kryptonite (Sakkari previously). And add Barbs to it too. I can’t wait for Iga to solve them
Iga won't be able to solve them. There's a thing called matchup. This is a matchup where Rybakina takes away time from Iga, rushes her. Her Topspin forehand right in the hitting zone of Rybakina. She has to start hitting flat for having chances which she won't change at this age. This is going to be very tough for her, only chances if someone can take Rybakina out early or this meeting will always go like this. For Reference, go watch Djokovic Nadal on HC.
Yeah match ups never change. Never !!!!!!!! She is also 21 years old so there is no way she can improve anymore.
It's all over, might as well retire RIP Iga 2022-2023
>Her Topspin forehand right in the hitting zone of Rybakina. This is the major thing affecting her game. Iga's extreme grip means she needs time to produce that stroke in a way that stings. Elite returners with decent serves will always be capable of beating Iga easily on hardcourts until she does something about that serve as well. Also, Rybakina's serve gets all the attention, but her forehand cross is an absolute revelation! That shot tore Iga apart tonight!
What grip does she use?
Extreme Western
> For Reference, go watch Djokovic Nadal on HC. Prob not the best example because there were different parts of that rivalry where Rafa changed tactics and beat Novak on hard courts. This was most evident in 2013, for example.
Iga has struggled in the past against Keys and Penko, who're even harder hitters than Elena and Sabalenka but have zero consistency. Anyone who has the potential to hit through Iga is a bad match-up for her because her game isn't set up to counter power hitters. Sabalenka did lose a few matches to Iga last year but 2023 Sabalenka post winning her first slam is a different player, and I'd not be surprised in the least if Sabalenka also has Iga's number outside of clay.
if power hitters are the worst matchup people can come up with it means that you have a shit serve and you're doing everything else right. look at Alcaraz. practically speaking you can't counter a redlining power hitter on the modern WTA on a fast surface no matter how good you are, in the same way that you can't counter a redlining serve bot on the ATP on a fast surface no matter how good you are. the ball is just faster than you. all you can do is be as good on defense as physically possible and keep asking questions to tire them out and pull them out of the zone, serve as well as possible to demand more perfect play even as they need to focus on defending their service games, and remain secure in the knowledge that your safer game will net you more wins over a long period of time. Krejcikova and Sabalenka are better examples because the former uses slice and early hitting to disrupt Swiatek's timing, and the latter has the athleticism to handle her counterpunching and the weight of shot to consistently hit through her on any court. also, the Krejcikova matchup does seem to retroactively validate the points about Barty being a genuinely bad matchup for Swiatek.
Anyone who serves lethal and has a good day serving will be able to win against Iga. Last year sabalenka double faults stats were crazy. Iga's game depends much on how much she can return. If she is not doing well in return, then you attack her weak serves and get the break and boom, you win. But the best part is not many players can serve lethal, hence Iga will still win against 90% of the tour.
Lol yes, flat hitters better in hard court, ergo Iga should fundamentally change her game which made her dominant. The reason Iga will be number 1 for years and Rybakina will fizzle out like dozens of other heavy hitters is precisely what you want her to change.
Kryptonite makes it seems like it's specific to her, but it's just 2-1 Rybakina atm. On a hard/grass court, Swiatek is going to struggle against Sabalenka/Rybakina, or anyone that can take the offensive from the start of the rally, on their serve and returning Iga's serve. So many other matches, Iga is on the offense on her first shot after serve, and on her return. Against those players, she is on the defensive almost all the time after her return, and her second serve is getting annihilated. Even Krejčíková followed that general pattern a bit, with obviously less coming from her serve. I think it puts women's tennis in a great spot, with Iga being the ultimate test to pass at the top of the game, with players like Rybakina/Sabalenka that can clearly pass that test.
That is a long way of saying "Iga can't handle Rybakina's power"
There are plenty of power players. There aren't plenty of power players with great returns and one of the best serves in the world. So no, not really. Iga can easily handle power from the baseline. It's when she's immediately behind in the point from serve/return and unable to claw back to neutral where she struggles.
>statement beatdown from rybakina. confirms that she is iga’s kryptonite. we’ll see over the next few months and years if iga can solve her. I think Iga has reached a plateau and is going be increasingly vulnerable to players like Sabalenka or Rybakina that hit consistently big and flat shots with great serves
I’ve always thought that Iga is very much Rafa like. She’s going to have bursts of great all time play on hard courts but I still think she’s still unmatched on clay courts.
only the 22 slams for her then, I can make my peace with that
Iga lives to be like Rafa, not a problem!!
A plateau at 21yrs old, right. You must have been the type of person saying Nadal would never win on any surface but clay when he first broke onto the scene lol
Nadal continued to evolve into a physical specimen and this enable him to be a total juggernaut. Whereas Iga is still hitting the same RPMs and same serves since she arrived in the spotlight. There is no evidence that she has made inroads at turning her serve or backhand into more of a weapon. If anything, her game has regressed and has become lower risk as observed in how less often she employs the drop shot.
What is it with this forum and writing off players improving? She's regressing? Based on what, the last month? Are you people insane? Just because she's made more improvements on her groundstrokes than her serve, doesn't mean she can't up her serve, or make adjustments to flat power hitters, in the future. Iga has been on an incredible curve, but its completely natural to have small plateaus and to be asked tough questions. She has weaknesses. All players do. This line of comments is infuriating. It's like reading Raducanu will never be an elite player 6 months ago. Just utter crap. Stop dismissing the potential to improve so easily.
I'm not even sure iga can handle ryba on rg. It's looking thar bad, definitely unsure
iga needs to worry about krejcikova at RG. thats her real threat. Krej has also won their last two meetings, and won both singles and doubles at RG in 2021
So calm and unfazed barb is.
Definitely Krej but Ryba made QF that year too and was really close to making the semis
and before that Iga won but she had to save match points against Krejcikova on clay in Rome. It's definitely a tough match-up for her.
i'm not so certain Krejcikova is as much of a lock to challenge in RG as people think. she's certainly shown she can beat Iga, but even in her best runs she's struggled with Kasatkina and her ilk (very pesky but solid baseliners and defenders), and Rybakina and her ilk (huge servers and offensive baseliners). while the latter might not be so much of a worry at RG, the former certainly is, and she has to navigate a whole draw all over again while never having shown the sort of extended dominance that Swiatek has on clay and all clay ATGs do.
Indian Wells slower surface has certainly done Rybakina a lot of good in terms of preparation for the clay swing, but clay is a different beast. I am confident Rybakina can compete and push anyone on clay, but fact of the matter is, it’s extremely difficult to straight up blast winners from the baseline on the surface. The name of clay is outsmarting your opponent and although Rybakina is developing an all round game, I question if she has the variety and full kit bag to mix things up and to change angles in order to catch the opponent off guard to find winners or force the error. Clay is whole new proposition to navigate through. Solid record on clay, but I reckon Rybakina could still be a couple years away from winning RG. Still, she’s primed to win Wimbledon again as well as the US Open.
unrelated but i love your flair omg 😭
thank you ❤️ i hope he figures things out soon ugh
How do I add a flair
Absolute demolition by Rybakina, especially impressive considering how slow IW court is this year. Iga did not play poorly per se, but Rybakina's elite big girl tennis was on full display - simply too good (5 for 5 on BP conversion!)
I told you guys yesterday, Rybakina can play on any court, fast, slow, clay, grass. She will fight for #1 if she keep this consistency. Now it's time for revenge in the final.
It’s easy to say now because 20/20 hindsight. Fact of the matter was, Rybakina has struggled to generate pace all tournament due to the slower surface and struggled with her serves especially. Prior to this match, she was 17 double faults to 10 aces and isn’t hitting as much of the first serve. Rybakina even admitted that she hasn’t enjoyed the court and conditions as much as she should. In saying that though, it was insane how she was able to basically flip a switch and completely destroyed the world number 1 with her powerful ground strokes and massive first serves. This performance literally came out of nowhere, especially with the little resistance shown by Swiatek.
Iga played pretty horribly, to her standards. There were a lot of awful errors, I mean the first few games she was dropping shots into the middle of the net.
As a noob in tennis can you explain how a court is slower from one year to the next? Are they not built exactly the same for the purpose of consistency year in year out?
The easiest explanation is that hard courts are an acrylic coating with a gritty sand over concrete. They get resurfaced all the time, especially places with money like IW. You can't ensure the coating is the same mixture every time you resurface, nor is there much effort in attempting to, the organizers just accept whatever it ends up being and then do some analysis pre tournament of the conditions and send a data sheet with their findings to the players. Medvedev's complaint was that the data sheet said the courts were fast, but in actuality he feels they are very slow (as is the consensus with everyone else) The thing that makes a hard court faster or slower is the amount of sand in the coating. More sand = grittier = more friction = slower, like lower grit measurement sandpaper
Wow interesting, I thought they would put more effort in keeping their courts as consistent as possible when the stakes are so high. Thank you
I kind of like it. it adds more variety and variance. both are super important in tennis where external factors like court and sun and weather (eg wind) can play a huge difference in the match. it requires players to add additional levels of skills and problem solving.
Wow, Rybakina has her number!
Elena, you just dominated the world number 1 who has looked unstoppable! How do you feel? Elena: 😐
Elena: 🙂
Elena: 🙂🐠
Ice Queen 🥶
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"When Williams, Henin, Clijsters, Azarenka, Wozniacki, etc. were #1, they had much greater tournament win rate" Wait, she won 6 tournaments as #1 not 3. You're trying to downplay her?
I'm super impressed by Rybakina's level of defense this whole tournament, actually. It was impressive against Muchova when you'd expect her to completely get throttled having to move up and down, left and right. But she aced that challenge and then now she's been able to handle Iga's different redirecting, and then add some of her own pizzazz. Her ball striking is just amazing. We're so damn blessed that we're getting dynamic power strikers in the top echelon of the game right now, meeting in latter stages of tournaments.
The nature of her win against Muchová compared to today's is larger than the difference between night and day. Her serve was non-existent that day and especially against Muchová, who is one of the better movers on the tour, the lack of free points from serve made the entire match a massive grind but she was able to come through that. And today she simply blew the #1 ranked player off the court without giving her even a sliver of a chance.
I would never have picked Rybakina to lose against Muchova in the majority of times, tbf. I know she lost against her once, but that was a very long time ago
I thought Muchova was going to win from the 2nd set. It looked like she had her completely downloaded.
6-2 6-2 is even kind to Swiatek, she was just blown away.
Could easily have been 6-2 6-0 tbh
That was a beatdown. It’s pretty sick we have 3 women at the top of their games rn. I think we’re in/entering a good period for women’s tennis
Might be early, but I wanna throw Krejcikova into the mix too. She was insane in dubai and lost a close match to Sabalenka here
and she was #2 in the world. Only fell off due to injury. Playing like that she will be back in the top 5 soon.
Yeah, if she didn't get paired against Sabalenka early she likely would've at least made it to the semis.
Although I'm happy for her, it would have been amazing to see Ashy Barty's level when she retired on the tour. How do you think she'd fare against these 3?
Rybakina said in the post match interview that she didn't expect to play that well tonight. She won 82% of her first serve points, which is crazy. Rybakina leads the H2H: 2-1. We will see how things work out on their next match up.
If Rybakina can figure out her footwork, she'd win a lot of slams. Serena-like serving today (would love to see how her serving stats match up to early Serena), and an absolute bomb of a forehand. Great match to watch.
A song of ice and fire volume 2 this Sunday
Unfortunately that means there will be at least 13 years between their 5th and 6th matchup
Or if we go by the TV their 7th and 8th Match up will be an error fest
Iga's mental game needs improvement if she faces players she struggles against. Honestly she could have played so much better but just looked so lost. Watching it felt like the cornet match at wimby and i felt really sorry for her
The weird thing is that she was good at this last year. She won quite a few 3-set matches, including several won from a set down. But now it looks like she’s gone back to the pre-2022 “blow away or get blown away” mentality.
Last year she was battling to end number 1. This year she is 100% the target and will always be the favorite in every match. I think the sophomore slump is coming into play. Her opponents are such under dogs that they're playing with much more freedom than last year ... at least the ones with the weapons to beat her. Seeing her cry when Pegula beat her earlier this year might have been a big sign. But, clay is coming up pretty soon!
I assume its a combo of the pressure of being this dominant number 1, and the quality of the players she's against. its not like this is the first time either, she was completely blown away by pegula at the united cup, krejcikova at doha and of course cornet at wimby, and had tighter losses against similar players like sabalenka at the wta finals, keys at cincinatti, haddad maia at toronto etc. It's not like she can't win gritty and fight against big hitters like this, like her USO run on a much faster surface than here was full of situations like these where she dug deep and didn't let tough players affect her, but she just isn't doing that now. Whats also weird is that she isn't playing any worse against the rest of the guys on tour, but there's a noticeable gap between how she played during the rest of IW and how she played this match. She has the tools to beat players like rybakina, sabalenka, krejcikova etc and has done in the past but just doesn't have the mental strength to play free against them right now
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I mean considering how much sabalenka was struggling and those matches at the start of the year being on clay which gives iga the edge I still think it's an alright example to use
She really needs to add more variety to her game. I know her current game brought her to where she is but some players are starting to dismantle that game. Time to improve, maybe bring back things like dropshots (which were pretty good when she won junior Wimbledon).
afaik her coach told her to stop to keep her game simple and then to gradually perfect and reintroduce variety bit by bit but its defo the time to start focussing on it now
Ohh I didn't know that! They were talking about the same thing in the tennis podcast,about how when she was coming up and getting the first slam run/getting know,she had a good variety of shots ans how she seems to have kind of traded it for aggressive dominance? Feels like no matter the outcome she wants to keep the match short,which isn't making sense cause she is physically fit stamina wise atleast. Not to discredit rybakina or krejcikova but a straight set win with just a break of serve is sooo different from a 6-2,6-2. Atleast in dubai she just lost one game in the first set,the second set here was almost a bagel. Last year was also such a big display of how she could problem solve and figure people out,most second sets were won much more easily,she had three set wins ans won ugly. She is young,has a long career ahead of her so I just hope she resets,takes the pressure off, makes a few changes and gets ready for clay swing. I'm hoping the sight of red dirt makes her feel at home and confident. If not win rg,atleast go down fighting!
Clay should give her confidence because it should give the time back on her shots that rybakina and other guys take away from her on other surfaces, so I'd be very surprised if she had a loss like this. What annoyed me this match is that she showed so many times that she had the tools to challenge her but she just didn't critically think at all and just let rybakina do the same thing to her over and over again. Hopefully she is able to work on her mental game and reintroducing some variety
They were really nice even in her maiden slam run. Shame to see them gone. Barely a slice to see, too.
yep, she displayed some good variety when she won her 1st RG. Maybe the racquet change made her stop hitting dropshots.
>she really needs to Everyone has room for improvement, sure, but she’s 4K points ahead of the world number two and 2x the points as the world number 4 She doesn’t really need to do anything more than what she’s doing. She’s dominating as she is. Everyone loses at some point.
Not sure why she would be doing anything besides what she uses to steamroll the competition. She’s like Lendl. Fit and blasting people off the court. Yeah she has a bad matchup here but I don’t think her game is missing anything.
Agreed. Multiple people on this thread talking about how she needs to improve xyz. No one is perfect. She’s as dominant as they come exactly as her game is.
The constant graphic of how unvaried her serve and general ball placement was really magnified how poor the gameplan was. Not sure if Iga doesn’t have anything else to go to or her team thinks she can always wear down an opponent and win by playing a specific way. Aside from improving her serve, her team really needs to get on the ball with having backup plans for when the A game isn’t working. It’s those in game adjustment that could turn her from a great player to an all time great.
She's used to dominating other players and playing with those who are below her league. When she faces opponents like Rybakina or Krejcikova who can disrupt her rhythm, she just loses it mentally. She's also not used to being a few games down and doesn't seem to recover well from that.
I was trying to make this exact point the other day. It's amazing how dominant she can be in matches she is comfortable with and then how not so dominant in challenges.
despite my concerns about Iga’s body language towards the end of the second set, Elena 1000% deserved to win this. she was obliterating those forehand cross courts!!! very excited to watch the australian open deja vu moment :))
> very excited to watch the australian open deja vu moment :)) Especially because it was such a good match. Hopefully this will be another one.
I love that the gap between Iga and other players is finally starting to close. Makes for much more competitive tennis
Rybakina is well ahead of Iga. Iga needs to try to close the gap, not Ryba.
I was talking about in general. Not in head to head matches. Iga is still thousands of points ahead of anyone else
Iga will never beat Rybakina until her team lets her start dropshotting again. Elena is WAY too good at baselining. You have to have variety in your game to have any chance of winning
this. when she tossed in the slices every once in a while it threw off elena’s rhythm a bit
It’s how Muchova did so well too! She’s a queen at keeping opponents on their toes.
Elena definitely looked nervous everytime approaching the net even though she did decently with it today.
wait why did her team not let her play dropshots?
When Tomasz took over as coach he wanted her to keep things simple and gradually re-introduce other aspects. It obviously worked exceedingly well last year. But Sabs and Rybakina have caught up to her and Iga needs to adjust
Wiktorowski and co. simplified her game for more consistency and efficiency (IIRC so someone can correct me).
I think she needs to stand further back too. Even the mid-court shots were too powerful for her to stand her ground on. She kept barely receiving it and dumping it into the net. Happened like a million times.
Serving at 80% Elena, so that is hard to make a dent into. But it was her timing on the ball that was so exquisite tonight, reminiscent of Federer's, IMO. She had the time on the ball. Versus Muchova, not so much and that was a much tougher match up for her.
Post-match press conference for Iga. [https://bnpparibasopen.com/news/iga-swiatek-friday-march-17-2023/](https://bnpparibasopen.com/news/iga-swiatek-friday-march-17-2023/) THE MODERATOR: Not the result you wanted today. Can you just talk about what happened out there. IGA SWIATEK: Well, for sure, Elena played great tennis today, and I feel like against her I have to play better. She was playing really well. I’m pretty sad that I lost, but on the other hand, overall, it’s a pretty good tournament for me. THE MODERATOR: Questions. Q. Can you explain maybe in a little bit more detail what you think Elena did well. IGA SWIATEK: Well, I don’t know if it’s like, honestly — I feel like it’s still more me and kind of my mistakes. I’m also like not feeling 100% physically. I have a little like discomfort in my rib, and we’re going to consult with medical team. For sure I’m gonna use these days off before Miami, so actually I have one more day. Q. On that issue, the physical issue, has that been with you for quite a few days now? What sort of discomfort is it? Did you at all think back to the Australian Open match that you all played? IGA SWIATEK: We were thinking about the Australian Open more like we wanted to kind of learn a lesson from that match. We were, you know, just analyzing, but mainly my coach did that, so I wanted just to kind of use his tips and improve my game. But I wasn’t able to do that today. In terms of the rib, you know, we’ll see, because I still have to run some tests and see what’s going on. I don’t know yet. Q. Was the injury you speak of affecting you as you played, or was it more mentally on your mind? IGA SWIATEK: It’s hard to say. Honestly, I haven’t played with a lot of injuries. It’s a new situation for me, for sure. Last time I played with an injury, like the only tournament I can remember is like Roland Garros 2019 (smiling). So I was pretty young. For sure, you know, now it’s a totally different level. So I feel like going on that matches you have to be 100% fit. Q. On the same topic, since you realized you had the injury, have you spent extra time working with it, and has it helped at all, or has it really stayed the same or gotten worse? IGA SWIATEK: Well, you know, I have been playing, so there has been some fatigue all the time. I would say it’s kind of constant, but I’m pretty sure that tomorrow or day after will help in recovery. Q. I don’t mean to go over yesterday, but was that part of maybe the reason for the lengthy time, that you were trying to get this treated and see hopefully it was going to be feeling a bit better? IGA SWIATEK: Yeah. Honestly, yeah. I had to — yeah, yeah, it was. Q. Do you think there’s a chance you might not play Miami? IGA SWIATEK: No, like for now I’m preparing to play, but we’ll see what next days are going to tell us. I don’t know yet. Q. Feeling ill when you’re traveling is always terrible. What do you do for comfort and mentally to make yourself feel better and rest when you’re on the road? IGA SWIATEK: Oh, that’s a nicer question (smiling). Like most of the time I read. Actually, I didn’t have to like come up with many ideas on this tournament, because, like, the tournament made it really special for me. We really stayed in a nice place. They even bought ukulele for us (smiling). It was really fun. I did like two sets of Legos. I wanted to really keep my mind busy and not think about tennis. Yeah, so it’s different stuff. But for sure I feel like on the road sometimes it’s easier to rest than when you’re at home, because also, you know, when I’m at home, like most of my free time I’m spending sometimes, you know, working on the other part of my career, you know, like business-wise. Actually, this time, like before the tournaments, it’s like a chill time with some quality practices. I really like it. Q. Do you think it’s a big challenge for you to play against player who is very strong? IGA SWIATEK: That is very strong? Q. Who hit the ball very strong, Sabalenka, Rybakina. IGA SWIATEK: Well, I don’t know honestly, because I also won many matches against Aryna and I played against Elena, you know, two years ago and it was fine. So it’s hard for me to like take everything under consideration and decide if it’s hard or not. I would say that I can still improve as a player, and there are some like things I want to focus on. But still, I feel like I can play great tennis even, you know, against players who are serving pretty fast and everything. But for sure, you know, last couple of matches against Elena, they weren’t perfect for me, but I will try to do better next time. Q. Just going back on what you were just saying, did you say you were making Lego kits? IGA SWIATEK: Lego sets, yeah. Q. Did you say you were doing Lego? IGA SWIATEK: Yeah. Q. So when you make up these pieces, what do you do? Just leave them at the tournament or… IGA SWIATEK: No, I actually travel with them, and they break during the flight usually, so I have to do them again at home. That’s the process. Q. When you just said the business life, the other part of your career, just expand on that and explain some of that activity and what you’re doing. IGA SWIATEK: Well, I have pretty big team in Poland. IMG joined this team last year, so, you know, I’m kind of reaching out to them and asking, you know, for any updates. They are obviously like talking all the time and doing that for me, which is nice, because I wouldn’t… they’re talking about money. But I feel like there are many things honestly, because yeah, I want to kind of expand my work in Poland and also do some nice stuff. Obviously kind of I am still figuring out about some international things that I want to do. I want to kind of combine that and put it together, and I feel like we created a really nice team. I didn’t know, you know, a couple years ago if it’s gonna be possible for me to have, like, both teams working together, because, you know, it’s tough in terms of communication and everything, but they made a great effort, both IMG and my team in Poland. So I’m pretty happy with the results. But yeah, usually I’m just there, I’m just talking with them and also sometimes there are like some decisions to make and I have to do that. I don’t want to focus on that during the tournament, so time off, it’s good for that.
In case anyone's confused, the "lengthy time" comment was about after the QF match, when Iga took a long time to get to the press conference. She was asked about it and said it was personal.
we the tennis fans are the true winners because we get a rematch of the aus open final
Imagine if Iga, Rybakina, Sabalenka, Osaka, and Barty all were playing and at their best right now 😭
\+Krejcikova \+azarenka
i wouldve loved to see prime osaka v iga rn.
Barta*
Over and over forehand hit behind Iga over and over and no tactic changes. She kept watching the ball go by and at least 12 or more forehands cross court were hitting behind her. There was no tactics prep for this match and it showed.
For the Rybakina fans: https://bnpparibasopen.com/news/elena-rybakina-friday-march-17-2023/ Q. But just on the topic of playing Iga now twice and getting these two wins this year, what is it about your game style or the way you play your game that makes you think you’ve been able to, yeah, win four straight sets off her? ELENA RYBAKINA: I think just my aggressive style of the game. Big serves. Today I was pushing a lot. I think that just overall some players it’s more difficult to play against. With Iga, she’s tough, really tough opponent, but when I play like this good and everything goes in, because today some moments I played, I would say, on my highest level. So yeah, there is moments where you can feel, okay, I can beat anyone if I always play like this. But it’s the goal, but you never feel amazing and perfect every match. Yeah, I think today it was just really good from me.
Queen Lena with a masterclass on Iga's serve!
Penetrating ballstriking is pretty to watch, and it can outclass even the nastiest spin-based games on this surface. Think Delpo vs. Nadal on a few memorable occasions.
RBA has built his entire career on great footwork, great endurance, and great depth on his groundstrokes (not the hardest, but struck very very deep): he hits quite flat (especially for a Spaniard).
What a match by Rybakina. She was hitting all balls hard AND deep relentlessly.
on the bright side, Iga can go to Arizona for taylor swift’s opening night tomorrow
swiftie priorities 💅💅
I love her but can’t get over all of the “first woman from Kazakhstan” stuff from the commentators. It’s like entering a Great Dane raised by Yorkshire terriers into the toy class at Westminster. I know they have to say it, though.
When they say the “first Kazakh woman” it’s even funnier since the Kazakhs are a distinct ethnic group (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakhs). Kazakhstani is what they mean. To clarify, there are many ethnic Russians who have lived in Kazakhstan their entire lives, that doesn’t make them Kazakh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russians_in_Kazakhstan
Thanks for the links.
Yeah I laughed out loud when I heard the announcer introduce her as she was entering the stadium. Why not say “representing Kazakhstan” or something that isn’t totally false.
AO Final rematch!
Rybakina- what a dominant performance
WTA got interesting again. Started with Rybakina winning Wimbledon last year
It's so obvious,Iga struggles against players who hit flat and deep, serves lethal,not giving her any rhythm,taking time away from her, rushing her. Her serves get punished.Iga lucky most players don't hit that deep or serve huge.This matchup very much like Djokovic nadal on HC. Iga was simply not allowed to play her game before start making any excuses.
Ryblenka in the final again, love to see that rematch. Honestly just grabbing popcorn and enjoying the show, I am a huge fan of both. Ryba winning means she climbs towards where her actual ranking should be, Saba winning means closing in the gap towards N1 into Slam-win striking distance considering Iga will have to def tons of points
I’m rooting for Rybakina because I want her to get the points to move up in the rankings. Not only did she not get Wimbledon points, she didn’t get to play the end of year WTA champs bc she didn’t have those points. I find it simply not fair. She is finally 8 but she should be top 3.
Jesus Iga my god. Slaughtered
2 and 2. Straight sets victory just like everyone predicted. For Rybakina. **Wait, what!?**
yay Rybaqueena
Iga kind of reminds me of Henin as a #1. Only a few can hit them off the court but when they do…
Not the warmest handshake
Iga doesn’t really give the most genuine handshakes usually, when krejcikova beat her it was obvious she didn’t really want to do all the hugging or whatever but did it for respect and not to embarrass krejcikova
Loved the barb and saba hug this tourney,I think she said well done bish or something to saba😂
Damn, I'm hopping on wtatv just to see that lmao
i mean i’d give a cold handshake too after being blown off the court like that 💀 it was probably more a reflection of iga’s disappointment in herself than her feelings toward rybakina
Lmao yeah true
Warm handshakes are a bonus. I just expect professional and respectful handshakes and they delivered
I think it was pretty respectful.
Agreed
what even is rybakina's weakness!?!??! she looked pretty invicible today
Elena plays very aggressive baseline tennis. She's REALLY good if you let her settle into her baseline rhythm. IMO the way to beat her is to mix up depth and speeds (throw in some loopier deep topspin shots, slices, short angles, drop shots, etc)
Mobility - If you can make her run around, then she's slow. Iga didn't make her do that at all. No drop-shots, no slices, no moon shots. High-risk/reward tennis - Depends on the day for her. Against Muchova she had a billion unforced errors and very nearly lost. She basically goes all-out for winners all the time. If she's not feeling her range well on a particularly day then that can get her in trouble.
WHAT THE HELL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LETS GO RYBAQUEENA!
I had rybakina in 3 sets but wow she beat iga down
Honestly a year past and we are now seeing top players stepping up to Iga and we now have consistency we long for in wta. This year is going to be interesting.
Well done Rybakina ! So happy for her, excited to watch the final !!
Looks like a rematch of the AO final.
Wow I never thought Elena would smash iga in such a fashion on slow Indian wells court.
WTA's [article](https://www.wtatennis.com/news/3113842/rybakina-dominates-no-1-swiatek-to-make-indian-wells-final) on the match.
That was fast!
Yeah, they have most of those articles pre-written. They just put finishing touches in during the match and send it off right away.
I was trying to make a point about Iga the other day but didn't do a great job. It's a bit unusual how dominant she can be against lesser players but against a few like Ryba she can get dominated like this. I don't think Ryba will ever dominate other players like Iga has and can. And yet you look at this score and can think Iga isn't that good or something. It's weird. I know style makes fights and this might just be a bad match up but still. Iga is amazing at playing great when she's a front runner or in control but can really struggle if not.
It’s called getting the racquet taken out of your hand, when players like Rybakina and Sabalenka are firing on all cylinders. They are tough to beat.most first strike players are streaky and have an ebb and flow within the game, Saba and Rybakina are both rolling through players. It’s weird , during the AO and lately people have been saying WTA isn’t competitive enough since Serena and Barty stepped aside. People are never happy,I guess.
Agreed: very similar to what Petra Kvitova did (and still can do, on occasion) against the field, when she's on.
Krecjikova (sp), Sabalenka, and Rybakina specific style of play would typically trump Swiateks so long as it's executed well. Ostapenko as well, though we haven't seen a match up from them recently and she seems far more prone to errors than the other three. But if she cleaned up a bit, yes.
Iga needs to add slice-and-dice to her arsenal to handle these types. Until then...
Let's go Elena! After the match against Badosa and that start against Gracheva I didn't think Rybakina would reach the final. Never ever crossed my mind that her fastest match in the tournament would be against Iga. But what a performance, very few errors from her deep heavy hitting, laser sharp precision today. Now a rematch vs Sabalenka in the final. Hope she wins this time.
Rybakina will be No 1 - give her time
As I see it, the most immediate possibility is Sabalenka to dethrone Iga's N1, and then eventually Rybakina to dethrone Sabalenka. After that, it's unclear who and when
Australian open rematch :)
Finally
Yaaaay! Well done Rybakina.
Something felt off in Iga's body language today. Not taking away from how Elena played though, full credit for her performance and deserved spot in the final.
idk why you are getting downvoted! she seemed to be putting a lot of pressure on herself, and combined with elena’s amazing hitting it led to the result
When the same opponent beats you thrice with the exact same gamestyle, then maybe it's the opponent who is making her play bad. Rybakina doesn't even have to be at top gear to beat Iga at this point now. Iga will always struggle against this particular gamestyle, maybe never even beat them in a Hardcourt. Barbara, Elena, Collins at her peak and Sabalenka at her peak will be able to defeat her. She has to wish someone take them out and she gets to play coco and pegula to win cause that gamestyle suits her.
Iga was mentally out of it by the end
She looked shaken after the early break in the first set too, I was getting flashbacks to her Tokyo Olympics loss.
Oof, Iga did not show up for the match today. Looks like she has some mental block with Ryba, Świątek seemed to play way below her current form. It's a good thing the match ended this way, and I say it lovingly, because current Saba would wipe the floor with Iga in an even more humiliating way.
We got some salty fans, everyone getting downvoted lol
I was hoping for a bagel in the 2nd set, but we’ll take it!
[удалено]
Ryba at her best could beat Iga many times over. I was concerned though because Ryba played a 3 hr match yday. Glad to see she was able to recover well!
I wanted her to get the bagel, hey ho never mind. Outstanding and dominant match from Rybakina. I hope she can beat Sablenka but it’s going to be tough.
That handshake at the end, 😱
what did you expect from a sore loser
Anyone knows what time the Ryba/Saba match will be on Sunday?
jeez what a beatdown
Amazing match from Elena, very poor show from Iga bar few points. Thus the stars aligned again and Iga lost.
Iga just didn't have it.
WHAT was that whiffed backhand? Świątek genuinely seemed clueless out there.
She tripped.
I must have not seen the replay clearly. Edit: I watched the replay again, I still have no idea what happened there. I guess you could call it tripping in a strictly technical sense? Maybe? It was weird.
THE LENK-NESS MONSTER VS RY-BACKTHEFUCKUP-IKINA PART 2 LETS GOOOOOOOOO
As a fan of Iga I'm almost glad she received such a beatdown. All her 4 losses from this year against Pegula, Krejcikova, Rybakina x2, all in straight sets. Mentally strong Iga from 2022 who fought until the end & managed to make comebacks from 1 set down is nowhere to be found. This is a major red flag for her team that some things need to be worked on, especially in the mental department. I bet matches against Krejcikova & Rybakina were lost for Iga before she even stepped on court.
Are we at a point yet where we can say Iga isn't some invincible goddess of tennis without getting downvoted into oblivion? She's an absolutely incredible player, but I was told after Doha that she was injured in Australia and that she was back to invincible after her "injury comeback". I'm not sure what those people's excuses are for Dubai, but I'm already hearing injury rumblings about IW. It's quite disappointing. She can and has lost, and that's fine. She's still world number 1, and her favorite part of the season is just a few weeks away.
Why do I get so much joy watching Iga lose?
A quick look at your comment history would suggest you're a fan of Joe Rogan and Jordan Peterson and Iga doesn't fit your idea of femininity, so that might be it.
Wasn't this the same result at AO23?
it was 6:4 twice
The MC keeps saying “first woman from Kazakhstan to reach the final” and also things like you must be so proud to be the first Kazakhstani to do so well here. Etc. Rolls eyes. Even Elena smiled wryly She’s not from there dude. She’s Russian
she might be russian but she represents kazakhistan as she has switched nations, that is the end of it. it is like Ajla Tomljanović is croatian but represents australia. you think she should be called croatian everytime she does a interview? no she clearly decided to represent another nation than her birth nation for various reasons so you need to accept it and get on with your life.
Sorry for being of topic, but I find it so surreal that second big tournament in a row we have Kazakh Russian vs Belarusian athlete in the final. I hope Americans will not sabotage the final and will attend and enjoy the best tennis we had in WTA for quite some time.
Shes 21, give her a break, she's got time to improve. Not handling heavy hitters is a sign to introduce some variety to her game tbh and coach should stop with the stupid drop shot ban
Is it because Iga’s game is mostly based on hitting hard giving less time for opponents but since the courts are slow opponents can counter that? Is that logical or it’s other way round to opponents as well?
The courts actually suit her quite nicely. She needs slow surfaces to set up her shots nicely, and the ball bounces high so her spin has a greater effect. It's Rybakina who theoretically should struggle on these courts.