Iga Swiatek fought through her first match of the Australian Open tested, but relatively unscathed, in a 7-6 6-3 win over China’s Yuan Yue on Rod Laver Arena last night.
Swiatek has now won 25 straight first round matches in majors, going back six years. In fact, she’s played 28 major events, and only lost in the opening match once – Wimbledon 2019.
While it never felt like Swiatek was in danger of losing this match, the first set was tight, requiring some more aggressive play in the tie-break. Swiatek admitted her opponent was playing well, and making things hard for her.
Embed from Getty Images“I think she played well. She used the opportunities that I gave her a bit. She was kind of playing pretty strong from the forehand side. She was for sure going for her shots, playing fast. Yeah, she played good.”
That’s the difficult thing about tennis. You might be playing very well, executing all the right shots, but that doesn’t mean you’re able to do as you please on the court.
When asked about how she is able to find a balance between aggressiveness and patience on the court, Swiatek explained:
“Well, it’s not only up to me. It’s also up to the opponent and how she plays. When I have the chance, I will always try to be proactive and go for the shots. I don’t want to, like, push or something. When I have a chance, I’ll go for it.
When she plays also super aggressively, it’s not like we can both do it at the same time. So for me the balance is using my opportunities, like pushing.
But, for sure, in tennis you’re going to be in both situations, so you kind of need to adjust to what also comes from the other side of the net.”
Having a tougher match early on in a major isn’t something she’s used to, but Swiatek also understands there are pros and cons to being challenged from the beginning of a major.
“I mean, you never know. If you play four three-setters, you’re body is going to feel that. If you play easy matches, then suddenly you get a challenge, you might get rusty, like, in the middle of the tournament and feel the pressure.
I’ve had both situations. More often it was me winning quite comfortably the first rounds. But also I remember many tournaments where it was tough from the beginning.
Doesn’t matter to overanalyze it. Just you got to be ready for the next match and take lessons from why the match was kind of tighter, and try to improve stuff for the next round.”
One of those things Swiatek might want to tidy up, are the unforced errors. As the tournament progresses, Swiatek will not get away with hitting 35 unforced errors.
Embed from Getty ImagesSwiatek’s Rd.2 opponent will be Maria Bouzkova. They have met on two occasions, with Swiatek having only dropped 8 games in 4 sets against the Czech player.
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