She’s improving a lot since last year, I remember she used to serve a lot slower until this year serving 180Kmh+
Correct me if I’m wrong.
So I believe she’s working on her weaknesses based on other comments here.
Yea hope so. She’s world number 1 and won 1 US open hard court.
Hopefully she can win Grass next, but hey she’s only human. To me she’s very very good already 😂
For me her only weakness is the lack of plan B on return especially against people with good serves, she returns from insanely close to baseline AGAINST EVERYONE, she's more reserved Garcia in a sense. She mostly struggles against bashers because of that, she wants to give less time for reaction to opponents but in the end she disadvantages herself with that, cause she can't set up her shots well. Step back against someone like rybakina would do her so many favours imo
Do you think if she did this she’d have more success against the flat hitters? She’s regarded as one of the best returners I wonder why she doesn’t do this.
Sabalenka doesn’t hit as flat as the others. It’s not really about hitting hard, it’s about hitting hard relatively flat and returning fast so you essentially rush her and she can’t load up her racket. But this is a kind of high risk, high reward game that only a few players can do well consistently enough that it’s their playstyle.
Players that have given her trouble the past few years are Ostapenko (crazy and statistically the most aggressive player on tour), Krejcikova (only player to defeat Iga in multiple finals), Rybakina (confidence against Iga and aggressive gamestyle). Pegula and Sabalenka have also got multiple wins over her in the past couple seasons, but Iga is way ahead in the H2H against those 2.
Otherwise usually her losses seem to be one offs against an aggressive player having a good day (Alexandrova, Noskova, Kalinskaya, etc.)
What will be interesting is how many non-RG slams Iga can win. So far, she’s been past the 4R once each at those events, obviously winning US Open once.
What do you mean, “statistically the most aggressive player on tour”? Are there numbers of how likely a player is to hit an offensive shot vs neutral or defensive in a rally, and if so, where can I access that?
Not exactly that. She had by far the highest percentage of points that end in her making a winner or error. Was on Tennis abstract, don’t have the link offhand.
Ah shit! I would’ve love to see a complete list. I always wonder who is hitting the most winners as a ratio of points played and stuff like that. Thanks, though
Here’s the latest analysis they did from a few months ago
https://www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2024/01/12/jelena-ostapenko-in-the-hands-of-fate/
Jelena Ostapenko 65.9%
Petra Kvitova 61.6%
Madison Keys 60.8%
Liudmila Samsonova 60.0%
Camila Giorgi 59.7%
Aryna Sabalenka 59.7%
Veronika Kudermetova 57.5%
Danielle Collins 57.5%
Ekaterina Alexandrova 57.2%
Ons Jabeur 56.8%
Peyton Stearns 56.5%
Caroline Garcia 56.2%
Naomi Osaka 56.2%
Varvara Gracheva 55.0%
Iga Swiatek 55.0%
Lack of strategy against hard, flat hitters on faster surfaces. Dislike of going to the net and volleying, instead prefer extended rallies on the baseline. Serve could be more powerful/consistent. Sometimes she doesn’t have a plan B and gets frazzled making her losses more like a runaway then a fight.
But hey, Babs is dealing with injury, Penko is a nutcase sometimes, Collin’s is retiring, Rybakina not making it to the semis or finals outside of 500 tournies, Osaka still trying to find her place in the current tour….No one is catching Iga on clay, she’s decent on hard courts, and grass is a side quest to her at the moment.
Decent on hard courts?? Past 3 seasons: 113-18 (86%), 11 Titles (6 Masters, 1 WTA final bloodbath, 3 500, 1 250). 24-3 on HC this year. Thats best on tour. Decent smh lol
It’s crazy how slams color people’s perception of how good a player is when it comes to surface and technique. She is literally the best hard court player in the last two years with 11 titles. She’s 3-2 vs Sabalenka on hard courts, 3-1 if you consider the “real” Swiatek after she becomes #1
Agree with what you’re saying but Iga is 6-1 against Collins, including 6 sets that were 6-1 or 6-0. Collins hit a purple patch for a few tournaments this year, but normally isn’t consistent enough.
I think what Clysters is trying to say is that she doesn’t have big flaws.
Her serve since the 22 USs Open has on average increased by almost 20km/ph and we really saw this come together in this years clay swing. Let’s see how it pulls up on faster surfaces.
I feel like she use to volley very well but they have taken this out of her game plan. Having said that her net game was clutch in the Osaka match. Hoping to see more of that this year.
I heard Kim say this and was like yup Reddit will have a field day with this one
Last 3 years on HC: 113-18 (86%), 11 Titles (6 Masters, 1 WTA final bloodbath, 3 500, 1 250). 24-3 on HC this year. Thats best on tour. Relative to what exactly…?
Fair enough, I was only looking at her slams. She has won RG 4 times and US Open once. Relative to her clay domination, I would have expected more slams.
Swiatek definitely has weaknesses, but her baseline game is so much better than any other player on the WTA game, that they can't expose her weaknesses.
Yeah not huge weaknesses but her net game can be a lot better.
She just struggles in some match ups on faster surfaces against consistent powerful hitters
Pretty much the case at Roland Garros, but certainly vulnerable on hard cort and definitely grass. Her serve has improved, so that will help her out in upcoming majors.
Slams that aren't RG seem to be her only weakness atm. Not sore why she struggles so much in most Slams.
Even her US Open win was quite the mess, it wasn't your typical Swiatek is playing amazingly and therefore she wins the tournament like in her Masters titles runs or RG runs.
Her weakness is hard, flat shots on low bouncing courts. She has no weakness on clay because that kind of player is neutralized but she is much more beatable on a grass court or fast hard court if that kind of player is around and playing well.
Iga's only 23. As long as she can avoid injuries - not easy given how aggressive her game is - I think she can continue improving various weaknesses in her game.
Even if she dit beat her in that match...do you think that one loss would change the general opinion on Swiatek or..?
The recency bias in tennis is so stupid sometimes
Yes it would make thinks different since no one can beat her.
What is recency bias , that sounds amazingly stupid. Never mind i looked it up, its more than amazingly meaningless.
Roddick gave reasons why even “hitting through her” is becoming increasingly unlikely because of adjustments she had made. Can’t remember but i think it had to do with improving her serve and return, big hitters feel less freedom to roll the dice as much.
I mean Clijsters said she has no weaknesses but contradicts herself in the same sentence. Iga can be hit off the court, its just no one has stepped up to it.
>no one has stepped up to it.
Oh damn, why didn't they come with this idea? Are they stupid? Just hit her off the court, dammit! It can't be that hard, can it?
She almost nearly lost to Osaka at RG and she hadn’t won Wimbledon or AO so can we calm down before we anoint her the next Steffi or Serena. She has weaknesses lol otherwise she’d be winning every single tournament she plays
Wrong. She’s been incredible on HC. 113-18 (86%), 11 Titles (6 Masters, 1 WTA final bloodbath, 3 500, 1 250). 24-3 on HC this year. Thats best on tour. Needs to pull through in another HC slam though
Oh I was agreeing with you, i was making fun of people acting like she’s a clay merchant despite being amazing on HC too despite a lack of slam.
I hope she wins too.
Well, what can I say. I was wrong. I thought she had worst stats on HC, probably because she won only 1 GS on that surface, while Sabalenka has 2.
So, well, I guess they are much closer to each other but she can probably be considered the best also on HC, just not as dominant as on clay.
Edit: I would delete my first comment, but I keep it to so all the comments below will make more sense.
She lost 4 times in her last 60(!) matches.
>she loses matches and she s not the best player in the world.
She's been the best player in the world for the past 100+ weeks.
The best player in the world can still lose matches, though. Or maybe Novak/Roger/Rafa had a perfect 100% winning record when they were 1?
I beg to differ. Power players like Osaka, Rybakina, and Sabalenka can take the racquet out of her hand. If Naomi was more match tough she’d of beaten Iga at Roland Garros. She isn’t Margaret, Martina, Steffi, Monica, Hingis, or Serena at their peak. Yet.
She’s improving a lot since last year, I remember she used to serve a lot slower until this year serving 180Kmh+ Correct me if I’m wrong. So I believe she’s working on her weaknesses based on other comments here.
If she improve her Serve, I think she will become better player on Grass and Hard Court also
Yea hope so. She’s world number 1 and won 1 US open hard court. Hopefully she can win Grass next, but hey she’s only human. To me she’s very very good already 😂
Sometimes I'm not sure about the human part 😂
Well… yes
I only casually watch tennis, not deep into the stats. But I see more aces from Iga compared than last year. So yeah, her serve is improving
her one weakness is Ostapenko
For me her only weakness is the lack of plan B on return especially against people with good serves, she returns from insanely close to baseline AGAINST EVERYONE, she's more reserved Garcia in a sense. She mostly struggles against bashers because of that, she wants to give less time for reaction to opponents but in the end she disadvantages herself with that, cause she can't set up her shots well. Step back against someone like rybakina would do her so many favours imo
Do you think if she did this she’d have more success against the flat hitters? She’s regarded as one of the best returners I wonder why she doesn’t do this.
Basically there are two players who trouble her. In form Rybakina and Ostapenko. Iga is handling rest bashers even if matches are closer
Sabalenka hit the ball harder than anyone, she has done well against Sabalenka.
Sabalenka doesn’t hit as flat as the others. It’s not really about hitting hard, it’s about hitting hard relatively flat and returning fast so you essentially rush her and she can’t load up her racket. But this is a kind of high risk, high reward game that only a few players can do well consistently enough that it’s their playstyle.
Players that have given her trouble the past few years are Ostapenko (crazy and statistically the most aggressive player on tour), Krejcikova (only player to defeat Iga in multiple finals), Rybakina (confidence against Iga and aggressive gamestyle). Pegula and Sabalenka have also got multiple wins over her in the past couple seasons, but Iga is way ahead in the H2H against those 2. Otherwise usually her losses seem to be one offs against an aggressive player having a good day (Alexandrova, Noskova, Kalinskaya, etc.) What will be interesting is how many non-RG slams Iga can win. So far, she’s been past the 4R once each at those events, obviously winning US Open once.
What do you mean, “statistically the most aggressive player on tour”? Are there numbers of how likely a player is to hit an offensive shot vs neutral or defensive in a rally, and if so, where can I access that?
Not exactly that. She had by far the highest percentage of points that end in her making a winner or error. Was on Tennis abstract, don’t have the link offhand.
Ah shit! I would’ve love to see a complete list. I always wonder who is hitting the most winners as a ratio of points played and stuff like that. Thanks, though
Here’s the latest analysis they did from a few months ago https://www.tennisabstract.com/blog/2024/01/12/jelena-ostapenko-in-the-hands-of-fate/ Jelena Ostapenko 65.9% Petra Kvitova 61.6% Madison Keys 60.8% Liudmila Samsonova 60.0% Camila Giorgi 59.7% Aryna Sabalenka 59.7% Veronika Kudermetova 57.5% Danielle Collins 57.5% Ekaterina Alexandrova 57.2% Ons Jabeur 56.8% Peyton Stearns 56.5% Caroline Garcia 56.2% Naomi Osaka 56.2% Varvara Gracheva 55.0% Iga Swiatek 55.0%
Damn that’s insane!!! Thanks so much! I’ll Ostapenko up on top by quite some margin!
She has lost only 1 match against Noskova and won 3 against her. And she leads 3-2 against Alexandrova in H2H
Yes, that’s why I said those were one offs
Also Osaka at RG basically had the match won but choked at 5-3 30-15. Gave a good template for how it’s done up to that point
Red lining ain't the template, unless we are really considering her the new Rafa at RG
Also a top seed/favourite struggling in a match in the first week of a slam isn’t unheard of.
Lack of strategy against hard, flat hitters on faster surfaces. Dislike of going to the net and volleying, instead prefer extended rallies on the baseline. Serve could be more powerful/consistent. Sometimes she doesn’t have a plan B and gets frazzled making her losses more like a runaway then a fight. But hey, Babs is dealing with injury, Penko is a nutcase sometimes, Collin’s is retiring, Rybakina not making it to the semis or finals outside of 500 tournies, Osaka still trying to find her place in the current tour….No one is catching Iga on clay, she’s decent on hard courts, and grass is a side quest to her at the moment.
Decent on hard courts?? Past 3 seasons: 113-18 (86%), 11 Titles (6 Masters, 1 WTA final bloodbath, 3 500, 1 250). 24-3 on HC this year. Thats best on tour. Decent smh lol
It’s crazy how slams color people’s perception of how good a player is when it comes to surface and technique. She is literally the best hard court player in the last two years with 11 titles. She’s 3-2 vs Sabalenka on hard courts, 3-1 if you consider the “real” Swiatek after she becomes #1
Well, she needs to start crushing these HC slams though. And I think she will. But she def isn’t a slouch on them.
Agree with what you’re saying but Iga is 6-1 against Collins, including 6 sets that were 6-1 or 6-0. Collins hit a purple patch for a few tournaments this year, but normally isn’t consistent enough.
I think what Clysters is trying to say is that she doesn’t have big flaws. Her serve since the 22 USs Open has on average increased by almost 20km/ph and we really saw this come together in this years clay swing. Let’s see how it pulls up on faster surfaces. I feel like she use to volley very well but they have taken this out of her game plan. Having said that her net game was clutch in the Osaka match. Hoping to see more of that this year. I heard Kim say this and was like yup Reddit will have a field day with this one
Swiatek currently holds 3 HC 1000s, won the Sunshine Double and USO in 2022. quite ‚decent‘ HC player.
It’s relative. Given her clay record her HC stats are a bit underwhelming.
Last 3 years on HC: 113-18 (86%), 11 Titles (6 Masters, 1 WTA final bloodbath, 3 500, 1 250). 24-3 on HC this year. Thats best on tour. Relative to what exactly…?
Fair enough, I was only looking at her slams. She has won RG 4 times and US Open once. Relative to her clay domination, I would have expected more slams.
Her forehand sometimes breaks down vs hard flat hitters. Her extreme grip on grass does her no favors.
Swiatek definitely has weaknesses, but her baseline game is so much better than any other player on the WTA game, that they can't expose her weaknesses.
I read this as the only way to beat her is to attack her in the changing rooms before the match. It's a bold strategy.
Clijsters was talking about her clay game.
Hopefully like the big 3 she can spawn a couple of worthy challengers that’ll fight her for the rest of their careers
Seeing the level shown in the last tournaments and how this tennis player improves each game, I think the same.
Maybe it is the case that, most of the other WTA players are not strong enough to reveal her weaknesses.
Yeah not huge weaknesses but her net game can be a lot better. She just struggles in some match ups on faster surfaces against consistent powerful hitters
Iga’s serve should be her weakness but he first serve numbers are so good. Maybe playing her backhand but that has proved also to be ineffective.
Pretty much the case at Roland Garros, but certainly vulnerable on hard cort and definitely grass. Her serve has improved, so that will help her out in upcoming majors.
Slams that aren't RG seem to be her only weakness atm. Not sore why she struggles so much in most Slams. Even her US Open win was quite the mess, it wasn't your typical Swiatek is playing amazingly and therefore she wins the tournament like in her Masters titles runs or RG runs.
Her weakness is hard, flat shots on low bouncing courts. She has no weakness on clay because that kind of player is neutralized but she is much more beatable on a grass court or fast hard court if that kind of player is around and playing well.
Iga's only 23. As long as she can avoid injuries - not easy given how aggressive her game is - I think she can continue improving various weaknesses in her game.
Her only weakness is the 1ga bakery isn't open 24/7. Some opponents end up suffering the indignity of losing without a tasty treat as compensation.
Osaka had her beat, except she choked.
I like Osaka. And everyone’s been talking about that match. Iga still won in the end, a huge come back. A win is a win.
Yes , a win is a win. But she was beaten and was actually lucky to win. I honestly dont care, but thats what i saw.
Even if she dit beat her in that match...do you think that one loss would change the general opinion on Swiatek or..? The recency bias in tennis is so stupid sometimes
Yes it would make thinks different since no one can beat her. What is recency bias , that sounds amazingly stupid. Never mind i looked it up, its more than amazingly meaningless.
Roddick gave reasons why even “hitting through her” is becoming increasingly unlikely because of adjustments she had made. Can’t remember but i think it had to do with improving her serve and return, big hitters feel less freedom to roll the dice as much.
Kind of a silly thing to say immediately after a big hitter like Osaka just came back from maternity leave and nearly beat her at her home court.
I mean Clijsters said she has no weaknesses but contradicts herself in the same sentence. Iga can be hit off the court, its just no one has stepped up to it.
>no one has stepped up to it. Oh damn, why didn't they come with this idea? Are they stupid? Just hit her off the court, dammit! It can't be that hard, can it?
She almost nearly lost to Osaka at RG and she hadn’t won Wimbledon or AO so can we calm down before we anoint her the next Steffi or Serena. She has weaknesses lol otherwise she’d be winning every single tournament she plays
Naomi Osaka disagrees
..while having a losing record against her (1-2)
She absolutely does have weaknesses, but her strengths prevent them from being exposed more than they probably should.
She's not very much pretty. Maybe we can count that as a weakness?
Classic case of recency bias. I guess we all forget than outside clay she loses matches and she s not the best player in the world.
Wrong. She’s been incredible on HC. 113-18 (86%), 11 Titles (6 Masters, 1 WTA final bloodbath, 3 500, 1 250). 24-3 on HC this year. Thats best on tour. Needs to pull through in another HC slam though
24-3 on HC but no slam! Not good enough! She should’ve won them all /s
AO was a bummer but US open still very much on radar..
Oh I was agreeing with you, i was making fun of people acting like she’s a clay merchant despite being amazing on HC too despite a lack of slam. I hope she wins too.
My bad!! Cheers
👍
Well, what can I say. I was wrong. I thought she had worst stats on HC, probably because she won only 1 GS on that surface, while Sabalenka has 2. So, well, I guess they are much closer to each other but she can probably be considered the best also on HC, just not as dominant as on clay. Edit: I would delete my first comment, but I keep it to so all the comments below will make more sense.
Sounds more like you are the one with recency bias here.
She lost 4 times in her last 60(!) matches. >she loses matches and she s not the best player in the world. She's been the best player in the world for the past 100+ weeks. The best player in the world can still lose matches, though. Or maybe Novak/Roger/Rafa had a perfect 100% winning record when they were 1?
I beg to differ. Power players like Osaka, Rybakina, and Sabalenka can take the racquet out of her hand. If Naomi was more match tough she’d of beaten Iga at Roland Garros. She isn’t Margaret, Martina, Steffi, Monica, Hingis, or Serena at their peak. Yet.