Iga Swiatek’s US Open shows both sides of the world’s best female player
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NEW YORK — There are many things that Iga Swiatek, the world No. 1 and the queen of tennis for the past two years, is very good at.
Not letting her stress and frustrations seep into her game? She’d be the first to admit that this is a work in progress. Life inside Swiatek’s head these days can feel like sliding across a razor’s edge at high speed.
On a day like the first Tuesday of the 2024 US Open, she will have to do her utmost to stay on her feet. She made 41 unforced errors in her survival of a 6-4, 7-6(6) encounter with Russia’s Kamilla Rakhimova, who led 6-3 in the second-set tiebreaker.
Little joy and no celebration greeted the victory. Only a very warm, red face and too many thoughts about what had happened.
Iga Swiatek appeared to be at odds with herself during her first round match in New York (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
Two days later, on the same court, against an equally strong opponent, Japan’s Ena Shibahara, Swiatek effortlessly won with one of her signature bagel and breadstick combos, the kind of nonchalant defeat that has kept her at the top of women’s tennis for nearly 120 weeks.
What’s going on?
In recent years, Swiatek has become more reserved about the inner workings of her mind. It’s the part of a tennis player’s self that never came naturally to her. Her brain is too active. She’s not one of those souls blessed to exist without an inner monologue. She hears every word she thinks.
“Usually I don’t feel good on court when I have too high expectations,” she said Thursday, explaining her changing mindset for the two matches. “That’s why I make bad decisions on court. So I just try to reset and remember that I don’t have to play perfect tennis all the time. It’s okay if I make some mistakes, but I just have to focus on improving, that’s it.”
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This psychological battle between expectation and improvement played out completely over the two days.
Tuesday’s Swiatek was a player desperate to show how perfect she could be, trying to win point after point by firing lasers down the lines. If she hit too hard and lost a point, she would often try to hit the ball even harder on the next one, aiming straight for the line instead of near it on the first opportunity that presented itself. Rakhimova didn’t exactly give her any looseners. Swiatek responded to short invitations to attack and high-quality, deep forehands with equal and random force.
This disdain for her opponent’s qualities and total belief in her own excellence has brought Swiatek to where she is today. In recent months, it has also held her back from moving forward.
The women’s world number one is rarely swayed by what her opponent throws over the net (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
‘Being the first to the ball’ is the term players sometimes use to describe that kind of aggressive style. There is a fine line between aggression and impatience, however. Aggression is a strategy. Impatience is an emotional response — one that often has its roots in a desire to escape an unpleasant situation.
Swiatek has been talking about feeling grumpy for two months now. She hasn’t been feeling well since leaving Paris in June, having secured her fourth French Open title and fifth Grand Slam title of her young career.
She was already on her last legs, having won both Masters tournaments in Madrid and Rome before the French Open. She admitted that she had not prepared herself well for Wimbledon, which takes place on grass, the surface she likes least and on which she performs worst. She lost there in the third round — and was the Swiatek who sees an opponent peak and does not change her strategy until it is too late to do anything about it.
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After a brief respite, she returned to Paris for the Olympic tournament, also at Roland Garros, where she was much more than the overwhelming favorite. She played and existed largely as if she had the weight of Jupiter on her shoulders, and burst into tears when she lost in the semifinals to the eventual gold medalist Zheng Qinwen of China, barely able to talk about the mistakes she had made on her favorite court.
After winning the bronze medal a day later, she spoke of how the intensity of the schedule and the pressure of playing for her country, Poland, with the chance to win something that comes around only once every four years had worn her down. ““I still have so much work to do to understand myself and what happens to me sometimes,” she said.
Swiatek took a week off, but when she returned to Cincinnati for the U.S. hardcourt swing, the wear and tear of the schedule and what it does to her and so many other players was still top of mind. The sport needs to change, she keeps saying. Stop making so many tournaments so long and mandatory. If it doesn’t, burnout is inevitable.
It happened to Swiatek’s predecessor at the top of the sport, Ash Barty, who retired in March 2022 at the age of 25. Swiatek said in June that she didn’t know how long she would last. She threw in the number 28. She is now 23.
More days like Thursday will help.
More games when she remembers that playing at the height of her powers isn’t always possible or necessary — and when she remembers that her peak of power is higher than anyone else’s anyway. More games when she accepts that she can be at her best when she’s not trying to make every shot last, playing points instead of dominating them.
Her hero is Rafael Nadal, the king of hitting six shots to win the point in the seventh.
Against Ena Shabihara, Iga Swiatek showed the patience she seemed unable to muster in the first round (Kena Betancur / AFP via Getty Images)
She didn’t try to smother Shibahara in any particularly obvious way on Thursday afternoon. But she did, eventually, slowly working her way to points, relying on the great topspin that only she really has in the women’s game. Every time she plays like this, it makes the times she doesn’t go any stranger.
Two years ago, when she won this tournament, her only Grand Slam title besides the four in Paris, she said she had learned that she could win without playing perfect tennis. She hardly felt comfortable during her seven matches in those two weeks. Swiatek loves nature and peace. So New York City isn’t really her thing. Too busy. Too noisy.
She’s staying in a hotel near Central Park this year. Maybe that helped.
Whatever she did in the 48 hours between Tuesday and Thursday, it worked. Only she knows if she can keep it up for another nine days and five games. In the last Grand Slam of the year, almost everyone is dragging themselves on after a season that still has a few months to go.
Tennis is in her. She knows it, and everyone knows it. The only question is whether her mind will let it out.
“I have the tools,” Swiatek said Thursday, “but sometimes it’s just hard to use them.”
(Top photo: Kena Betancur/AFP via Getty Images)
