How do you beat Iga Swiatek?
Iga Swiatek is in something of a mini-crisis for her. She has lost 3 of her last 6 matches. She hasn't won a title in over 2 months. Truly these are dark times for the world no.1! After a 37 match winning streak spanning 4 months, wins on all 3 surfaces and 6 titles including a second grand slam, she was always going to come down to earth a bit. Swiatek is still by far the best player in the world, but she isn't on the other-worldly levels she was at in the first half of the season.
She has needed time to recover, both physically and mentally, from that incredible run. She did have some time off after Roland Garros, but that was hardly much rest with Wimbledon right around the corner. She has needed to rest up and get back into gear ahead of the final slam of the year, but she has looked vulnerable in this period. Those losses have come in very different circumstances however.
The first was at Wimbledon to Alize Cornet, a 6-4, 6-2 loss in Round 3 that ended the historic streak. Many saw it coming. She had been playing poorly in her opening two matches and had to do it in 3 sets in Round 2 against lucky loser Lesley Pattinama Kerkhove. The second came in the WTA250 quarter-final in Warsaw to Caroline Garcia (6-1,1-6, 6-4). Swiatek was playing back on the clay for the first time in almost two months against a very good Garcia who went on to win the title. Garcia served for the match, Swiatek broke back but lost as she served to stay in it. Then there is the most recent loss in Toronto to Beatriz Haddad Maia. Swiatek struggled greatly with windy conditions, clearly still rusty with just her second match on hard courts since lifting the title in Miami back in April. Even then, she lost 6-4, 3-6, 7-5. Haddad Maia had to play for 3 hours to beat her and was broken in the opening game of the deciding set. All very different losses, two going the distance, but themes within them that opponents can use to try beat this unstoppable god before them. Let's have a look.
1. Punish the second serve
This is the one anyone who follows Swiatek regularly knows about already. It's hardly a secret that the weakest part of Swiatek's game is the serve. There are a lot of issues with it, a lot of them stemming from problems with her technique. She doesn't hit with big power and can struggle to find the lines with it. The Pole's favoured serve is a body serve, but she is beginning to show signs of improvement by hitting more aces and unreturned serves in recent matches. A non-weapon serve is fine, but she does not hit it consistently enough. This exposes her biggest weakness by far- the second serve.
Swiatek's second serve is slow, she prefers a kick serve in the middle of the service box. On clay, this can be effective as it kicks up to make a very awkward ball for opponents to try return. On hard and grass courts though, it just sits up perfectly to be struck at. 3 of her 6 losses this year have had opponents targeting the second serve and attacking it relentlessly. Swiatek won just 3 points on her second serve in her Australian Open semi-final against Danielle Collins. Cornet hit multiple big returns on her second serve that either left her flat footed watching a winner or put Swiatek immediately on the backfoot. Garcia did the same on both first and second serve, bashing anything she got a look at back and that partly explains the one-sided opening set scoreline.
The uber-aggressive returners can get at Swiatek, especially if she is not playing well and does not have a high first serve percentage. It is a lot of free points on her service games that ramps up the pressure every time and requires near perfect returning from the world no.1 to win. If you are aggressive enough and can attack that second serve, Swiatek becomes a far less deadly opponent because you do not give her any chance to take control of points and play her game.
2. Play her on a windy day at Wimbledon
Let's say Iga Swiatek challenges you to a match. Just the two of you, in a battle for tennis supremacy. You're going to struggle against the world no.1 at the top of her game, but she's going to play nice. She let's you choose the surface to play on. You don't have a death wish, so you will not challenge her on the clay, so where do you go? The hard courts where she is much weaker but still has managed to win 3 WTA1000s (and don't forget that Australian Open semi-final)? No, choose the grass.
The number one key to beating Swiatek is to rush her. If you let her play her game, she will dominate points and win comfortably. It is near impossible to do so on outdoor red clay, and still tough on hard courts. The grass is perfect because it is much quicker, you take time away from Swiatek. The really big reason you can beat her on a grass court, however, is the low and uneven bounces.
Swiatek needs time and height on the ball to properly hit her topspin-heavy forehands. With the lower bounces, she struggles because she cannot get under the ball properly to generate that spin and power that is so deadly. With low balls, we often see a lot of errors from Swiatek with shots going into the middle of the net, a decent margin long or a decent margin wide. When the forehand goes wrong, it can really go wrong.
This was particularly true of all her matches at Wimbledon, where she ended up having to slow down and measure the forehand shots much more to consistently find the court. Similar happened against Haddad Maia, with low bounces creating more problems for her. When it's a grass court, Swiatek is far less comfortable and her biggest weapons can become far, far weaker.
So you're going to pick a grass court for your epic duel against Swiatek, but I would also recommend you find somewhere rather windy to do it too. Swiatek really, really hates the wind.
A lot of players can struggle in windy conditions; your ball toss gets thrown off, the ball can be flying all over the place and become very unpredictable. No one wants to play in the wind, but some struggle to adapt to it more than others. Swiatek really, really struggles. It makes an already weaker serve worse and makes that precise forehand far more erratic too.
After all of her matches at Wimbledon this year she spoke about struggling with the wind and it showed in her performances. It throws off her game and she doesn't always know how to deal with it. When conditions are poor or difficult, you need to be able to adapt to them. Swiatek has never done well in windy conditions and even with 3 hours to get used to it against Haddad Maia, she was very clearly frustrated with it. Wind and grass increase your odds of success against her far more.
3. Don't get slaughtered in the first hour
Ok, let's say you're not playing Swiatek on a grass court or in the midst of a hurricane. Let us also assume you do not have a burning desire to rip the seams off every serve she hits at you, what do you do? Simply put- don't let her bulldozer you.
Easier said than done, I know, but Swiatek wins a lot of matches by looking for early breaks and ramping up from there. She is an amazing front runner- she has lost just 1 match this year after winning the first set which was against Ostapenko in Dubai. She broke her opponent in their first service game of every match at Roland Garros. She leads the tour for most 6-0 (bagel) and 6-1 (breadstick) sets won this season. She breaks early, she ramps it up from there and then she sees the match out with ease. She is an absolute nightmare to play against.
Unless your name is Jelena Ostapenko, you're not beating her if you lose the first set. You have to start well and make sure you serve really well, which is extremely hard against the best returner in the world. If not, you must try breaking back quickly. The key is to try and live with Swiatek, staying with her and not letting the domination to get going. Quinwen Zheng was extremely successful at this in their first encounter in the 4th Round of Roland Garros this year. Swiatek had multiple set points in the first set, serving for it at 5-3 but Zheng did not fall apart as most did.
You desperately need that first set against Swiatek to give yourself a foothold in the match and something to build on. If you do lose the first and take the second, she is almost certain to rally and take you apart in the decider. Losing the first set puts far more pressure on you to play at your peak for two consecutive sets without any drop offs. Swiatek will punish any dips in your level and can easily turn matches on their heads.
The Garcia match in Warsaw is a perfect example in my opinion. Garcia dominated the first set, Swiatek finally found her rhythm in the second and Garcia couldn't keep up that insanely high level leading to another breadstick. She was then massively improved in the third, playing at the level she was in set one. It takes a hell of a lot to take sets of Iga Swiatek, you don't want to be having to pull out your best in back-to-back sets with no margin for error.
The really big thing you're trying to do by staying with Swiatek is not only avoiding the momentum she gains, it's about getting under her skin. Swiatek can get very flustered and frustrated when opponents stick with her and push her and lead to errors (we will talk more about that in a little bit). The longer a set goes on, the higher chance you have of winning it against Swiatek. This was certainly the case for Zheng at Roland Garros, who won the first set in a tiebreak where she had saved set points again. She cranked up the pressure and got her reward; more errors from Swiatek and an opening set.
The snowball can work your way, too. 2021 Swiatek would certainly have fallen apart after a first set loss, but less so this new 2022 player. Even still, your best chance is by putting that pressure on her early and forcing her to come up with the goods. She often improves after poor first sets, but you need to make things a living nightmare for her even when she is winning after it. Haddad Maia won in Toronto because she did not go away, she kept up her level for 3 hours and was rewarded with a special victory.
4. Pray she is having a bad day
This might sound rather silly. Swiatek having a bad day isn't something you can at all rely upon or even know will happen. It's a lot easier to beat players when they're having a bad day, obviously.
But I do think it is particularly relevant with Swiatek, because she can easily get frustrated. I would argue Swiatek is a bit of a confidence player. When she feels confident in her game, she is 100% focused and plays at her best. When that confidence is rocked, either by poor form or her opponents getting at her, she can get flustered. It was common in 2021 for her to lose matches if she didn't win the first set; she struggled to win if she wasn't at her best.
That has all changed in 2022 with that incredible mental strength and the winning streak. But, she can still be got at when she's frustrated. All players have bad days, matches where they just can't quite get everything right. The best still win in spite of that- Swiatek has done a lot of winning while not at her best.
When Swiatek gets frustrated, she can begin to see red. She rushes her game a lot more, the timing she needs to hit her shots properly doesn't come off. This was certainly the case against Haddad Maia and also against Cornet at Wimbledon. She tries hitting winners off every shot rather than constructing points properly, leading to even more errors and problems for her. It does not happen often in 2022, but Swiatek can spiral. Your aim is to try stay with her when she is on those bad days and cause those frustrations; if she starts rushing her game and refuses to adapt, she can be beaten. She can also raise her level and rip you apart, though.
That really is the fundamental problem against Swiatek. You can stay with her, attack the second serve, try taking her on on those bad days, but she will still probably win. Swiatek has weaknesses that can be got at, but she hides them very well and will win despite them. She is the world number 1 for a reason.
You can try punishing the second serve and still lose. Bianca Andreescu was clearly trying to attack it in their match in Rome and did get good strikes in, but she still lost 7-6, 6-0. Swiatek has played some horrible matches and still won comfortably- her Round 3 match against Azarenka in Rome was a perfect example of this, taking almost 2 hours to beat the Belarussian 6-4, 6-1 with a very back-and-forth opening set.
She lost the opening set in her first 3 matches in Indian Wells and came through them all with dominant sets to follow. The final of Indian Wells was also heavily effected by very windy conditions but she adapted and won because Sakkari could not handle it and Swiatek could.
Zheng might have stay with her in that Roland Garros match, but she lost the next 2 sets 6-0, 6-2. Haddad Maia took 3 hours to beat a very poor Swiatek performance. Even at her worst when everything is against her, she is still a fantastic player and you will have a hard time beating her.
None of the strategies and weaknesses mentioned here are entirely reliable; she has shown this year she can find ways to win in the toughest of circumstances. A lot of the matches she has lost have been much more down to her own poor performances and opponents getting a look at those faults. At her best, she does not give you those opportunities.
Swiatek is not quite at her best at the moment. She is coming off a historic winning streak and will need time to find her form and fitness again. It is incredible mentally and physically exhausting to play and win that many matches. Not only that but she has been bouncing around the surfaces which gives her no help. She has had Roland Garros clay to Wimbledon grass in 3 weeks, then back to clay for Warsaw ahead of the hard court swing. Plus she played a charity exhibition on hard before Warsaw. Since Roland Garros she hasn't really had any time to properly prepare on any surface and get comfortable.
Hopefully for her with nothing but hard courts from now until April, Swiatek can get back to winning ways on the surface she won 3 WTA1000s on earlier this season. I think many of the WTA will be hoping, for their own sakes, that she doesn't.